LIBRARY OF CONGRESS, 



- Shelf ."El 
JQ 

UNITED STATES OF AMERICA. 






1* 



MEDITATIONS 



ON THE 



Sufferings of Jesds Christ. 

^Translates from tbe Utalian 

OF 

Rev. F. FRANCIS DA PERINALDO, O.S.F., 

By a Member of the Same Order. 




STe w York, Cincinnati, and St. Louis: 
BENZIGER BROTHERS, 

PBINTER8 TO THE HOLY APOSTOLIC SHE. 

LONDON: R. WASHBOURNE, DUP.LIN: M. H. GILL & SON, 

18 Paternoster Row. 50 Upper O'Connell St. 







Imprimatur. 

*i» Michael Augustine, 



New Yobk, AprU 12, 1886. 




s 



Archbishop of New York. 



Copyright, 1886, by Benziger Brothers. 



TO 

The Great and Beloved Bishop of the West, 
the stanch defender of the faith, 

the tender father of the poor, 

the zealous apostle of temperance, 

the earnest advocate of christian education, 

the vigilant and faithful shepherd of his flock, 

Et. Eev. JOHN IEELAND, D.D., 

Bishop of St. Paul, 

THE TRANSLATOR HUMBLY DEDICATES THIS LITTLE WORK, THAT, 

BEARING THE IMPRESS OF HIS APPROBATION AND RESTING 

UNDER THE SHADOW OF HIS ILLUSTRIOUS NAME, IT 

MAT MERIT A CONSIDERATION WHICH IT 

MIGHT NOT OTHERWISE CLAIM. 



Notre Dame de Lourdes Academy, 

Rochester, Minnesota, 
Feast of St. Francis of Assisi, 1885. 



PREFACE. 



IT is customary among Catholics to prepare for the 
celebration of the principal festivals of the year by cer- 
tain pious exercises, such as fasts, novenas, triduums, and 
meditations on the divine mysteries ; also by reading the 
lives of the saints and striving to imitate their virtues, 
mortifications, and heroic actions. In this manner the 
faithful prepare to solemnize the feasts of Christmas, 
Pentecost, and Corpus Christi ; of the Immaculate Con- 
ception, Nativity, and Assumption of the Blessed Yirgin ; 
of. All Saints, and of those saints for whom they have a 
particular devotion. They not only devote days and 
weeks to preparing themselves for the worthy observance 
of those feasts which they purpose to celebrate with 
special piety, but they also consecrate whole months to 
the honor of the objects of their particular devotion. For 
instance, the month of May is dedicated to the celebra- 
tion of the glories and triumphs of the Virgin Mother 
of Jesus Christ ; the month of June to the commemora- 
tion of the Most Sacred Heart of our Holy Redeemer; 
and in recent times the whole of November, particularly 
in Catholic Spain and the Southern Republics, has been 
devoted to the souls in purgatory. 

Now, if the faithful so commendably dispose them- 
selves to celebrate those feasts which may be considered 



6 PREFACE. 

secondary ones, why should we not do as much, and even 
more, for Easter, which is the feast of feasts? I say 
Easter, because on that day our Holy Redeemer triumphed 
over the world, over death, and over hell, achieving this 
threefold victory by His glorious resurrection, and seal- 
ing, as it were, the fulfilment of that grand and memo- 
rable sacrifice which released us from the bondage oi' sin 
and the tyranny of hell, made us heirs of heaven, and 
declared us adopted children of God. 

The most practical way of preparing ourselves for the 
celebration of Easter is not alone by prayer, penance, 
mortification, and retirement,— acts peculiar to 'the 
Lenten season, — but also by meditating on the passion of 
Jesus Christ. Though this is a devotion adapted to all 
seasons, it is particularly suited to Lent, because our holy 
Mother the Church has consecrated this time to the com- 
memoration of the sufferings of the Man-God. 

My object in preparing this work wa6 to provide a 
spiritual guide for secular persons ; and, knowing from 
experience how difficult it is for them, when engaged in 
temporal affairs, to apply their thoughts to serious and 
merely abstract ideas, I thought it proper to render the 
consideration of the sufferings of Jesus historical, moral, 
and, as far as possible, local. But the passion of our Lord 
is of such a nature, that in order to derive profit from 
the history of it, it is not sufficient to read it as we read 
the lives of the saints and other histories: it requires 
meditation. It is true that the word " meditation " dis- 
mays, at first, persons who are not accustomed to such 
spiritual entertainment, and sometimes even those who 
frequently make pious reflections. For such persons I 
have obviated all cause of alarm by reducing the present 
considerations to simple spiritual reading, which will 



PREFACE. 7 

yield the fruits of meditation by mere perusal. But I 
request that these considerations be not read in haste nor 
many at a time, but slowly and with reflection, one every 
day, either in the morning during Mass, or in the evening 
before retiring. For those persons consecrated to God 
in a special manner, and who are accustomed to meditate, 
I have divided each consideration into two parts, which 
will furnish matter for morning and evening meditation 
during the Lenten season. 

Finally, it is my duty to declare that if, in the course 
of this little work, I have tried to excite the devotion of 
the faithful by quoting facts and traditions upon the 
authenticity of which our holy Mother the Church has 
not decided, I do not intend to attribute to them any 
other authority than that of the pious authors from whom 
I obtained them. 



CONTENTS. 



PAGH 

Preface 5 

Preliminary Sermon 11 



CONSIDERATION 



I. Jesus Christ predicts His Passion to His Apostles.. . 15 

II. Jesus Christ weeps over Jerusalem 21 

III. Jesus triumphantly enters Jerusalem 26 

IV. Jesus predicts His Bitter Passion to His Apostles for 

the Second Time 31 

V. The Chief Priests and Ancients of the People consult 

how to apprehend Jesus and pnt Him to Death. . . 36 
VI. Judas sells his Divine Master for Thirty Pieces of 

Silver 41 

VII. Jesus Christ takes Leave of His Beloved Mother 47 

VIII. Jesus celebrates His Last Pascli with the Apostles. . 52 

IX. Jesus washes His Apostles' Feet 57 

X. Words spoken by our Holy Redeemer after the 

Washing of Feet 63 

XI. Jesus Christ predicts the Perfidy of Judas 68 

XII. Our Divine Redeemer tries by every Means to con- 

vert Judas 73 

XIII. Jesus institutes the Most August Sacrament of the 

Holy Eucharist 78 

XIV. Sermon of Jesus Christ after the Institution of the 

Blessed Sacrament 84 

XV. Jesus Christ leaves the Supper-room 89 

XVI. Jesus Christ predicts the Flight of the Apostles and 

the Triple Denial of Peter 94 

XVII. Sadness of Jesus in the Garden of Gethsemam 99 

XVIII. Prayer of Jesus Christ in the Garden of Gethsemani 104 

XIX. The Mortal Agony of Jesus Christ 109 

XX. Jesus is betrayed by Judas and captured by the Sol- 
diers 114 



10 CONTENTS. 

PAGE 

XXI. Jesus is abandoned by His Disciples and dragged 

through the Road of Capture 119 

XXII. Jesus is questioned by Annas and struck by a Ser- 
vant 125 

XXIII. Jesus before the Tribunal of Caiphas 131 

XXIV. The Triple Denial of Peter 130 

XXV. Jesus passes His Last Night in Prison in the House 

of Caiphas 141 

XXVI. Jesus is condemned to Death by the whole Sanhedrim 147 

XXVII. Jesus Christ is brought before Pontius Pilate 153 

XXVIII. Jesus Christ at the Tribunal of Herod 159 

XXIX. Jesus is sent back to Pontius Pilate, and Barabbas is 

preferred before Him 164 

XXX. The People continue to ask the Deliverance of Ba- 
rabbas and the Death of Jesus , 169 

XXXI. Jesus is scourged at the Pillar 174 

XXXII. Jesus is crowned with Thorns 180 

XXXIII. JeSus Christ crowned with Thorns is shewn to the 

People 185 

XXXIV. Jesus is again questioned by Pontius Pilate, and 

then condemned to the Death of the Cross «1 91 

XXXV. Jesus sets out towards Mount Calvary 196 

XXXVI. Jesus falls for the First Time: He meets His Blessed 

Mother 201 

XXXVII. Simon of Cyrene helps Jesus to carry His Cross 206 

XXXVIII. Jesus consoles the Women of Jerusalem who weep 
over Him: Veronica wipes His face with a Hand- 
kerchief 210 

XXXIX. Vinegar and Gall are offered to Jesus— He is stripped 

of His Garments and nailed to the Cross , 214 

XL. The Sorrowful Virgin 219 

XLI. Jesus is raised on the Cross — He prays for His Exe- 
cutioners 224 

XLII. The Second "Word spoken by Jesus on the Cross. . . 230 
XLIII. The Third and Fourth Words spoken by Jesus on 

the Cross 236 

XLIV. The Last Word spoken by Jesus on the Cross 242 

XLV. Jesus is taken down from the Cross and laid in the 

Sepulchre 247 



INTRODUCTION. 



" O all ye that pass by the way, attend, and see if there be any 
sorrow like to My sorrow." — Lamentations i. 12. 

rpHESE mournful accents placed by Jeremias in the 
-I- mouth, of the afflicted daughter of Sion may well 
be referred to Jesus Christ suspended between heaven 
and earth ; and yet, oh senselessness ! " the just perisheth," 
says Isaias the prophet, " and no man kyeth it to heart." 
" Every creature," says St. Jerome, "commiserates the 
death of Jesus Christ: the sun is obscured, the earth 
trembles, the rocks are split, the vale of the temple is 
rent, the sepulchres are opened, and man alone for whom 
Jesus died remains insensible ; and man does not pity his 
Redeemer." St. Augustine thus addresses man : " Jesus 
Christ came to suffer ; He came to die, to be spat upon, 
and, finally, to be crucified on that infamous gibbet, the 
cross ; He patiently endured all these pains, all these suffer- 
ings, for you, and will you not suffer something for Him ? " 
Cardinal Bellarmine seeks to know why we are scarcely 
willing to suffer for love of God even what is strictly 
necessary for our salvation, since the Eternal Son of God, 
who could have redeemed us by shedding a single drop 
of His precious blood, willingly endured unspeakable 
sufferings and poured out all His blood for love of us. 
The venerable author discovers that it is because we do 
not attentively meditate on the passion of Jesus Christ, 
and on the great love He showed for us by dying on the 



12 INTRODUCTION. 

cross. The prophet Jeremias assigns the same reason 
when he says, " With desolation is all the land made 
desolate : because there is none that considereth in the 
heart" (Jerem. xii. 11). And indeed if all would 
reflect upon how much our beloved Eedeemer suffered 
for us, certainly they would not offend Him by even a 
venial sin, and they would be as ardent with divine love 
as the seraphim in heaven. The Doctor of Grace recom- 
mends as most beneficial the daily meditation on the pas- 
sion, asserting that a tear shed in memory of the suffer- 
ings of Christ is more meritorious before God than a life- 
long fast. "The wounds of Jesus," says the same holy 
Father, "are full of mercy, full of sweetness and charity. 
As for me, in all my adversities I have not found a more 
powerful remedy than meditation on the sacred wounds 
of my holy Redeemer; in those wounds I repose calmly. 
When some foul thought disturbs my mind. I have re- 
course to the wounds of my Jesus ; when my flesh rebels 
against me, I remain victorious with the memory of the 
wounds of my Saviour ; when the common enemy lays 
snares against me, I have recourse to the mercy of my 
Holy Eedeemer, and the infernal enemy flies from me ; 
when the ardor of concupiscence goads and excites my 
passions, I remember the passion of Jesus, and they return 
at once to their former calm. In a word, there is noth- 
ing in the world, though bitter as death itself, which with 
the memory of the sufferings of Jesus will not become 
sweetened." St. Gregoiy the Great says that "where 
the thought of the death of Jesus reigns, there concupis- 
cence of the flesh cannot reign." St. Isidore affirms 
that if we consider the passion of our Redeemer, there is 
no suffering which we may not only bear with patience 
and resignation, but also with escpisite pleasure and joy. 



INTRODUCTION. 13 

"Truly," asks St. Bernard, "who is there so irreligious 
as not to become contrite at the consideration of the 
excruciating sufferings of Jesus Christ ? Who is there 
so proud as not to become humble ? so irascible and vin- 
dictive as not to forgive ? so attached to the honors and 
riches of the world as not to despise them % so malicious 
and sinful as not to repent 1 Ah ! even this very 
moment the remembrance of the sufferings of Jesus 
moves the hardest hearts, as one day His painful death 
moved the earth and split the rocks." 

The same writer, addressing himself to our Lord, says : 
" Thy passion, O Lord, is the last refuge of a miserable 
sinner ; it is a powerful remedy for all the infirmities of 
the soul ; it supplies wisdom, justice, and sanctity. When 
virtue fails me, when my feeble strength abandons me, I 
am not disturbed ; I do not distrust, but I have recourse 
to the wholesome chalice of Thy passion. I know that I 
have no merits before Thee, but I know that Thy merits 
are infinite, as is also the treasure of Thy mercy. I shelter 
myself meanwhile in the bowels of Thy mercy, and there- 
in I taste how sweet is the Lord." 

" The passion of our Lord," a devout author writes, 
" supports heaven and earth and vanquishes hell. By 
the passion the angels are confirmed, mankind is redeemed, 
the enemies are conquered." Another pious author says 
that "the passion of Jesus Christ restored glory to 
God, repaired the ruin of the angels, crowded heaven 
with citizens, merited grace for man, acquired glory for 
the just, condemned sin and death, disarmed the devil of 
his power, and despoiled hell of its prisoners." In a 
word, the passion of Jesus is so meritorious that God 
alone can explain its excellence ; but we may experience 
the efficacy of its merits by a daily meditation upon it. 



14 INTRODUCTION. 



man that hopeth in Him" (Psalms xxxiii. 9). 

Father Louis della Palma says that meditation on the 
passion of our Lord is suitable for all persons and all 
states of life. It will recall the sinner from his evil course, 
raise the falling from the pit of vice, strengthen the 
feeble in the path of virtue, quicken the persevering in 
the way to perfection, stimulate the love of the holy soul. 
All the glorious examples of virtue which Jesus gave us 
during His life shine out most resplendently in His 
passion. 

St. Bonaventure, who wrote admirably on the passion 
and acquired his seraphic doctrine from the crucifix, says 
that if we wish to advance in perfection we should medi- 
tate every day on the sufferings of Jesus Christ, because 
such a practice is a powerful means of sanctifying our 
souls. It will free us from all evil, procure us every 
good, enrich us with the grace of God in this world, and 
merit for us eternal life in the next. " Yes," says St. 
Leo the Great, " meditation on the sufferings of Jesus will 
merit for you life everlasting ; because where the partici- 
pation of the sufferings is, there is also a certain expecta- 
tion of the promised beatitude." 

What devotion can there be more excellent, more 
efficacious, and more useful than this? Who would 
refuse to spend half an hour a day in this pious exercise 
which has always been the delight of the saints '{ How 
many nights did not our seraphic Father St. Francis pass 
in contemplating the sufferings of his beloved Jesus, and 
with how many graces was he not favored in return? 
Let us, therefore, imitate this seraph of love, and like 
him we shall derive great joys and consolations in this 
life, and also in the next. 



MEDITATIONS 



THE SUFFERINGS OF JESUS CHRIST. 



CONSIDERATION I. 

Jesus Christ predicts His Passion to His Apostles. 

"And Jesus going up to Jerusalem, took the twelve disciples 
apart, and said to them: Behold, we go up to Jerusalem, and the 
Son of man shall be betrayed to the chief priests and the scribes, 
and they shall condemn Him to death." — St. Matt. xx. 17, 18. 

Fiest Point. 

n^HE time determined from all eternity for the Re- 
-L demption of mankind was fast approaching, and 
Jesus, taking a last leave of the plains of Galilee, went 
to Jericho, the city of palms, where He remained for 
some time. He was followed by a great multitude of 
people of every condition, who were attracted no less by 
His sanctity than by His divine doctrine. Among them 
were His Virgin Mother, His apostles, a great number of 
disciples, and the holy women who accompanied Him to 
Calvary. As the feast of the Pasch drew near, Jesus 
passed on to Jerusalem, there to celebrate that solemnity 
with the people. His joy on this occasion was so great, 



16 MEDITATIONS ON THE SUFFERINGS OF CHRIST. 

and beamed so resplendently from His countenance, that 
the mother of James and John believed that the time 
had come for His temporal kingdom, and besought Him 
to let her two children sit one on the right and the other 
on the left of His throne. 

Far different indeed was the cause of the joy which 
filled His Sacred Heart : He was about to immolate Him- 
self upon the cross to appease His Eternal Father for our 
sins, and for this reason He was happy. But fearing that 
His passion might be an occasion of scandal to His 
apostles, He called them apart and told them of it thus : 
"Behold, we go up to Jerusalem, and the Son of man 
shall be betrayed to the chief priests and the scribes, and 
they shall condemn Him to death." This was equivalent 
to saying: "Behold, my dear disciples, we go up to Jeru- 
salem, but I shall not return with you to Galilee. My 
enemies who have long been trying to apprehend Me will 
now accomplish their designs, and I shall be delivered as 
a malefactor into the hands of the chief priests, scribes 
and Pharisees, who will condemn Me to a most disgrace- 
ful death. I shall then be given over to the gentiles, who 
will mock Me, scourge Me, crown Me with thorns, and 
finally crucify Me between two thieves. 15c not scandal- 
ized at seeing Me subjected to such indignities; for as I 
have power to foresee them, so have I also power to avoid 
them : but I know that they are necc.sary to the eternal 
salvation of mankind, and also to My glory; therefore I 
go joyfully to meet them. You have now been fore- 
warned of My ignominious death, and you know of My 
glorious resurrection; and when these things come to pass 
they should confirm your faith in Me, because I had 
predicted them to you/' 

Our Divine Bedeemer had often before spoken of His 



JESUS PKKDICT8 HIS PASSION TO HIS APOSTLES. 17 

future passion, always in terms which betrayed the 
yearnings of His loving heart for its accomplishment. 
On several occasions He had mentioned it to His holy 
Virgin Mother, and it had frequently been the subject 
of His conversation with His apostles and disciples; and 
the Gospel tells us that during His glorious transfigura- 
tion on Mount Thabor in the presence of Peter, James, 
and John, Moses and Elias were talking with Him, "and 
they spoke of His decease that He should accomplish in 
Jerusalem" (St. Luke ix. 31). There seemed to be 
nothing dearer to Him than His much-desired passion. 
king to His disciples He said, '-I have a baptism, 
wherewith I am to l>e baptized : and how am I straitened 
until it be accomplished ! " On the night of His last 
supper, unable longer to conceal His joy at the approach 
of Hi- bitter passion, He manifested it to His apostles, 
Baying: " With desire I have desired to eat this Pasch 
with you before I suffer" (St. Luke xxii. 15). Again 
He displayed this ardent desire when, turning to Judas 
who had already betrayed Him, He said, "Since thou 
determined to deliver Me into the hands of My 
enemies, delay no longer; do it quickly." 

Oh, when we consider how the Eternal Son of God 
longed to die upon the cross for our redemption, how 
appears our ingratitude in refusing to suffer any- 
thing for His love! Jesus went to meet His ignomin 
death with pleasure; we bear with murmuring and im- 

ace even those little adversities which are unavi 
ble in our life. Ah ! ought we Dot to be ashamed of our 
ingratitude towards our loving and merciful Redeemer? 
Let as resolve from this very moment to bear with 
patience and resignation all the crosses and humiliations 
which it may please < lod to send us. 



18 MEDITATIONS ON THE SUFFERINGS OF CHRIST. 



Second Point. 

The Evangelist remarks the eagerness with which our 
Lord undertook His last journey to Jerusalem: "And 
they were in the way going up to Jerusalem : and Jesus 
went before them, and they were astonished : and follow- 
ing were afraid " (St. Mark x. 32). An observer would 
have said that Jesus was going tip to the holy city, not 
to be crucified as a malefactor, but to be crowned king. 
" Let those be ashamed," says Venerable Bede, " who 
think that our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ feared 
death. He foresaw all the snares which His enemies laid 
against Him, yet Lie did not avoid them. Lie foresaw 
all the horrors of His bitter passion, yet He did not be- 
come terrified, neither did He flee, but went spontane- 
ously to encounter death, though all dissuaded Him." 
This internal and external joy of our Saviour proceeded 
from His divinity more than from His humanity: 
His divine love for man was so intense, and His 
merciful desire of redeeming him so great, that they 
fortified His humanity against all fear of the torments, 
tortures, and slaughter to which it would soon be sub- 
jected. Still His Sacred Heart must have been immersed 
in the profoundest affliction ; for, though His humanity, 
strengthened by His divinity, shrank not from the ap- 
proaching passion, yet it keenly anticipated all the hor- 
rors which accompanied that passion. In fact, we read 
that in the Garden of Olives our Lord was assailed by 
such agonizing grief that He sweat blood. In this case 
His divinity, instead of relieving His anguish, increased 
it, by displaying before His mind in all their hideous 
enormity the ignominies to which He would be subjected. 

In order to form an idea of our Saviour's emotions on 



JESUS PREDICTS HIS PASSION TO HIS APOSTLES. 19 

leaving Galilee, let us imagine Him to be a person like 
ourselves, feeling such pangs as we suffer in quitting 
country, riches, honors, parents, and relatives. 

With what tender affection does uot a man take a last 
farewell of his native land, his parents, and his friends, 
when about to enter upon a long and dangerous journey 
from which he fears he may not return ! The place which 
lie is about to abandon never appeared so beautiful, the 
loved ones with whom he parts never seemed so dear ; all 
the diversions of his childhood, all the pleasures of his 
youth, all the hopes of his past life are fondly and sadly 
recollected. 

Let us refer these same emotions to the loving and 
sensitive heart of Jesus. How affectionately did He not 
bid farewell to Nazareth where He had passed His youth ; 
to Capharnaum which He had chosen as the centre of 
His heavenly mission ; to Cana of Galilee where He had 
performed His first miracle ; to Lake Tiberias across which 
He had often sailed with His disciples ; to Mount Thabor 
where He had been transfigured ; to the river Jordan 
where He had been baptized by His precursor ; to ISTaim 
where He had wrought many wonders, — in a word, to all 
those places which had witnessed His childhood, His 
youth, His preaching, His prodigies, His prayers, His 
penances, and His fasts! We know from the Gospel 
that after His resurrection He returned to visit them 
again : " And behold He will go before you into Galilee : 
there you shall see Him" (St. Matt, xxviii. 7). 

Let us imagine that our Lord as He journeyed along 
gazed affectionately on the mountains, streams, and other 
familiar objects by the way, and considering that it was 
the last time that He should pass as a mortal man through 
that beautiful region which awakened in Him the fondest 



20 MEDITATIONS ON THE SUFFERINGS OF CIIKIST. 

memories, He sought, as it were, to divide His grief with 
His beloved apostles, saving : " Behold, we go up to Jeru- 
salem, and the Son of man shall be betrayed to the chief 
priests and the scribes, and they shall condemn Iliin to 
death." 

If Jesus was so grieved at leaving those delightful 
places, what must have been His feelings at parting from 
His apostles and disciples, and above all from Iii> most 
loving Mother ! Oh! it is impossible to give expression 
to such grief. Let us meditate upou this first step of 
our Saviour's passion ; and if we are not able to repay 
Him for His love, let us at least pity Him in His afflic- 
tion. 



JESUS WEEPS OVER JERUSALEM. 21 



CONSIDEKATION II. 

Jesus Christ weeps over Jerusalem. 

"And when He drew near, seeing the city, He wept over it." 

St. Luke xix. 41. 

First Point. 

OUE Lord rested for a time at Jericho, after which He 
continued His journey towards Jerusalem, and on 
the eve of the Sabbath arrived at Bethania, a small suburb 
about half a mile distant from the city. Here He passed 
the Sabbath at the house of Mary Magdalene and Martha, 
where He was accustomed to stop with His disciples 
whenever He went from Galilee to Judea. The day 
following, being the fifth day before the Passover, was 
the occasion on which the Jews, according to the Mosaic 
law, brought the Paschal lambs into the city amid great 
pomp and rejoicing. Jesus, therefore, who was the true 
Lamb of God who taketh away the sins of the world, and 
the spotless Victim whose sacrifice on the altar of the 
cross was to secure the redemption of mankind, thought 
it proper to enter Jerusalem also on that day with appro- 
priate rejoicing. Accompanied by His apostles He left 
Bethania early on the morning of Palm-Sunday, and went 
in the direction of the steep Mount of Olives. Arriving 
at Bethphage, a small village situated on a declivity of that 
mountain, He chose two of His disciples and said to 
them : " Go into the village that is over against you, and 
immediately at your coming in thither, you shall find a 



22 MEDITATIONS ON THE SUFFERINGS OF CHKIST. 

colt tied, upon which no man jet hath sat : loose him and 
bring him. And if any man shall say to you : What are 
you doing? say ye that the Lord hath need of him : and 
immediately lie will let him come hither" (St. Mark xi. 
2, 3). The disciples obeyed at once. "And going their 
way, they found the colt tied before the gate without, in 
the meeting of two ways: and they loose him. And 
some of them that stood there said to them : What do 
you loosing the colt? Who said to them as Jesus had 
commanded them, and they let him go with them. And 
they brought the colt to Jesus: and they lay their gar- 
ments on him, and He sat upon him" (St. Mark xi. 
4-7). Thus mounted, the Divine Master, surrounded by 
His disciples, rode in the direction of Jerusalem. Pa 
over Mount Olivet. Be was about to descend towards the 
Vale of Josaphat, when He halted to gaze upon the scene 
which lav spread out before Him — at His feet the garden 
of Gethsemani, before Him Mount Calvary, and beyond 
the full prospect of the holy city with its triple walls and 
lofty towers. Instantly His loving soul was assailed by 
a mortal sadness, and He gave vent to His grief in a 
copious flood of tears. "And when He drew near, see- 
ing the city, He wept over it" (St. Luke xix. 41). Our 
Lord wept, and wept bitterly, not over Himself, but over 
the blindness of the Jews, over the hardness of sinners, 
over the obstinacy of Hi.- own people, and over the un- 
happy fate of Jerusalem. In the bitterness of His grief, 
He addressed these affectionate words to the unhappv 
city : " If thou also hadst known, and that in this thy day, 
the things that are to thy peace, but now they are hidden 
from thy eyes. For the days shall come upon thee: 
and thy enemies shall cast a trench about thee, and 
compass thee round : and straiten thee on every side : 



JESUS WEEPS OVER JERUSALEM. 23 

and beat thee flat to the ground, and thy children who 
are in thee, and they shall not leave in thee a stone upon 
a stone : because thou hast not known the time of thy 
visitation" (St. Luke xix. 42-44). 

"With these and other loving expressions, our merciful 
Lord bewailed the future calamities which hovered over 
Jerusalem. But in weeping over His own people and 
their unhappy city, He also mourned over the ingratitude 
of the millions of Christians, whom He foresaw would reap 
no fruits from the Eedemption because of their indiffer- 
ence to Heaven's call. Ah ! let the tears of our loving 
Jesus move us to pity for our miserable state, and if in 
the past we have displeased His loving heart by our ob- 
stinacy in sin, let us endeavor for the future to please 
Him by our repentance. 

Second Point. 

The prophecy of Jesus Christ regarding the siege and 
total destruction of Jerusalem has been literally fulfilled. 
Thirty-seven years after the Redeemer's death, Titus, 
Emperor of the Romans, surrounded the deicide city with 
a strong intrenchment, and after five months of terrible 
fighting razed it to the ground, leaving not a stone upon 
a stone, and cleansed unhappy Jerusalem of all its iniqui- 
ties by the slaughter of eleven hundred thousand of its 
inhabitants. The obstinate Jews have been since then 
without temple or altar, without sacrifice or priesthood, 
without king or country, exiled, dispersed all over the 
globe, despised by all, reputed as a vile race, bearing im- 
pressed on their pallid foreheads the indelible sign of the 
terrible deicide perpetrated by their fathers. In the 
awful fate of this nation we can recognize the vengeance 



24 MEDITATIONS ON THE SUFFERINGS OF CHRIST. 

of God excited by the insolence of the ungrateful Jews 
in disregarding the visitation of His divine mercy. 

We should now reflect on ourselves in order to derive 
profit from the misfortunes of others. Let us imagine 
that our merciful Lord, knowing us guilty of many sins 
and seeing the approaching punishments which menace 
us, looks upon us from heaven with commiseration, and 
speaks to our hearts, saying: Unhappy soul, you do not 
know the miserable, state in which you are ! If you could 
see the eternal punishment which awaits you unless you 
repent, you would make serious reflections. Your body 
which you indulge so much will soon be reduced to ashes ; 
those persons whom yon love so tenderly you shall soon 
leave forever. All will be separated from you but 
your good and evil works; these will accompany you. 
You believe that the time is not near, but it is fast 
approaching: hell is open beneath you; the sentence of 
death has already been issued, and on .My will depends 
its execution. Every day, every moment, every hour, ma v 
be the last for you. How long, therefore, will you delay 
to do penance? How long will you still provoke My 
anger, tire My patience? How many inspirations did I 
not send you? how many graces did I not grant you? 
how many advices and good examples did you not re- 
ceive? how many times have I not called upon you, and 
you failed to respond ? You were deaf to My voice and 
dumb to My exhortations. Therefore, I weep over you, 
and over your unhappy state, and the punishments which 
menace you; and weeping, I invite you for the last time 
to repentance, that yours may not be the fate of Jerusa- 
lem,— obduracy, abandonment, and eternal perdition. 

Thus our merciful Lord speaks to our souls ; and how 
shall we respond ? With ingratitude ? Ah, no ! let us 



JESUS WEEPS OVER JERUSALEM. 25 

prostrate ourselves at His feet, beseeching Him to grant 
us a profound grief for our sins, a firm and strong resolu- 
tion of nevermore offending Him, and an ardent desire of 
loving Him now and for eternity. Let us' also earnestly 
ask Him for the grace of meditating on His sufferings, 
in order that, having them before our eyes, we may be 
encouraged to support our sufferings. 



26 MEDITATIONS ON THE SUFFERINGS OF CHRIST. 



CONSIDERATION III. 

Jesus triumphantly enters Jerusalem. 

" Fear not, daughter of Sion: behold, thy King cometh sitting 
on an ass's colt."— Bt. John xii. 15. 

First Point. 

"TDEJOICE greatly, O daughter of Sion, shout for 
^ joy, O daughter of Jerusalem: behold, thy King 
will come to thee, the Just and Saviour : He is poor, and 
riding upon an ass, and upon a colt the foal of an ass" 
(Zach. ix. 9). This was the prophecy of Zacharias con- 
cerning the triumphant entry of Jesus Christ into the holy 
city of Jerusalem : but the disciples did not comprehend 
the meaning of these things until after His resurrection 
when they found that all that had been written of Him 
had been literally verified. 

Let us now consider the sentiments of the disciples and 
the people on the day of Christ's triumph. 

The fame of His miracle of raising Lazarus to life had 
reached the city, and the people were eager to see Him. 
Hearing of His approach, they went out to meet Him just 
as He was meekly descending Mount Olivet. Some car- 
ried branches of olive as a sign of peace, others bore palm 
as a symbol of triumph, others gathered flowers and 
strewed them on the way as a demonstration of honor, 
and some, finally, divested themselves of their robes 
and spread them on the ground to be trampled upon by 



JESUS TRIUMPHANTLY ENTERS JERUSALEM. 27 

the beast on which Jesus was sitting. All unanimously 
hailed Him, and gave expression to their great joy by 
singing a hymn of glory, saying : " Happiness and joy to 
the son of David, praise and glory to the expected of 
nations, to the desire of the eternal hills, to the foretold 
by the prophets, to the Saviour of the world ! Behold our 
King ! behold our Messias, who comes to us meek and 
humble, sitting on a beast of burden ! Blessed be the 
King who cometh in the name of the Lord, peace in 
heaven, and glory on high." Here followed the choir of 
Hebrew children who gave glory to God, and loosing 
their innocent tongues to sing, proclaimed Jesus the ex- 
pected Messias, saying : " Hosanna to the Son of David, 
glory and triumph to our King !" In the midst of these 
hosannas and acclamations, all recollected the great 
miracles which He had performed, the wonderful cures 
which He had wrought, the sublime and divine doctrine 
which He preached, and the admirable and most holy 
life which He led, and they were obliged to recognize 
Him as the true Son of God : hence they paid Him the 
tribute of honor and adoration. 

The apostles were overjoyed at this triumph of their 
Master, and thinking that the time had come for His 
promised kingdom which they supposed would be of this 
world, they united more closely around Him, and walked 
joyfully over that flower-strewn road in the midst of the 
hosannas of the people and the canticles of the children. 

What a glorious day was not that for the apostles and 
disciples of Jesus Christ ! What a joy for the holy city 
of Jerusalem ! If only the memory of that triumphant 
entrance of our Lord into the Jewish capital so fills us 
with joy, what must have been the happiness of those who 
witnessed it \ If language fails to describe the celebra- 



28 MEDITATIONS ON THE SUFFERINGS OF CHRIST. 

tions which commemorate the victories of kings and 
princes of this world, it is certainly inadequate to describe 
this memorable triumph of the King of glory, the Lord 
of heaven and earth, and the long-desired Messias. 

Let us, therefore, imagine that we see Jesus descending 
Mount Olivet, hailed by the joyful acclamations of the 
multitude, and uniting with them let us repeat in senti- 
ments of adoration and homage : " Beaedictus qui xenit 
in nomine Domini, hoscmna in excelsis ! " 



Second Point. 

We have learned from the first point of the sentiments 
of the disciples and the people ; let us now consider those 
of Jesus. While the apostles and disciples, filled with 
enthusiasm by the joyful manifestations of the crowd, 
believed that their Blessed Master was going to be crowned 
king of Jerusalem, and that He would at once commence 
to exercise His royal power, Jesus, whose divine mind 
penetrated the future, was thinking of the spectacle that 
would be witnessed a few days hence on that very road 
now strewn with flowers, olive-branches, and palms : 
yet He did not ignore the inconstancy of the Jewish 
people. 

His eyes were yet moist from the tears shed over Jeru- 
salem ; and, as He passed those places soon to be rendered 
memorable by His sufferings, He thought of those events 
of His passion which would transpire in each. At Geth- 
semani He foresaw the betrayal of Judas and the flight 
of His disciples ; at the grotto He thought of His agony 
and bloody sweat ; at the torrent of Cedron He foresaw 
His fall into its waters and the cruelties which would be 
inflicted on Him there by His barbarous executioners. 



JESITS TRIUMPHANTLY ENTERS JERUSALEM. 29 

Hearing the joyful hosannas which resounded in the 
air, He considered that five days from then they 
"would be exchanged for " Let Him be crucified, let 
Him be crucified!" Perhaps Jesus said to Himself: 
" This honor which the Jews now render will soon 
be turned into the grossest ignominies. To-day they 
proclaim Me their king, but this shall not pass before 
they will solemnly declare that they recognize no other 
king than Caesar. To-day they meet Me with olive- 
branches, palms, and flowers, and in a few days they will 
crown Me with a crown of thorns, they will scourge Me 
tied to a column. To-day they spread their garments on 
the road, and on Friday they will strip Me of Mine, which 
they will divide among themselves. To-day they intro- 
duce Me iuto their city chanting hymns of glory, and in 
a few days they will banish Me from it amidst howls and 
brawl Inge. To-day they call Me blessed, and when I 
shall be hanging on the cross they will curse and blas- 
pheme Me. What a terrible contradiction is this !" 

With these thoughts He ascended Mount Moria, which 
is opposite Mount Olivet, and passing through the Golden 
Gate, triumphantly entered Jerusalem. But instead of 
proceeding to some grand banquet-hall, He went directly 
to the temple, where He found a number of people buy- 
ing and selling goods. Full of zeal for the honor of His 
Father's house, He seized a scourge, and overthrowing 
stands and money-tables, drove the changers from the 
temple, saying in a severe tone, full of authority : " My 
house shall be called the house of prayer : but you have 
made it a den of thieves" (St. Matt. xxi. 13). He then 
began to instruct the multitude, teaching them reverence 
towards the house of God. In the evening, not finding 
any one to give Him hospitality, He returned with His 



30 



MEDITATIONS ON THE SUFFERINGS OF CHRIST. 



disciples to Bethania, where He was always welcomed by 
Mary Magdalene and Martha, sisters of Lazarus. 

In this consideration we should reflect, first, upon the 
inconstancy of the Jews in proclaiming Jesus king and 
so soon afterward crying out against Him. From this we 
should learn never to rely on ourselves, never to take' 
notice of our temporary fervor, and never to trust to our 
constancy ; but, on the contrary, we should regard our- 
selves unworthy of the favors and graces of God, and 
attend to our eternal salvation with fear and trembling, 
as St. Paul teaches. Secondly, we should reflect upon 
the great respect and reverence which we should have for 
the house of God, remembering the severe punishments 
inflicted upon the desecrators of the temple. If Ji 
who was the very essence of goodness, so severely punished 
those who profaned the Jewish temple, which was only a 
figure of ours, how much more will He not punish those 
who desecrate cur churches where He is really present in 
tho Blessed Sacrament '( 



JESUS AGAIN PREDICTS HIS BITTER PASSION. 3l 



CONSIDERATION IV. 

Jesus predicts His Bitter Passion to His Apostles 
for the Second Time. 

"And it came to pass : when Jesus had ended all these words, 
He said to His disciples : You know that after two days shall be 
the Pasch, and the Son of man shall be delivered up to be cruci- 
fied."— St. Matt. xxvi. 1, 2. 

Fiest Point. 

THREE days after His triumphant entry into Jerusa- 
lem, Jesus said to His disciples : " Yon know that 
after two days shall be the Pasch," and I repeat to you 
what I have already told you, that on this solemnity I 
shall be delivered into the hands of My enemies, to be 
scoffed at, despised, scourged, and finally crucified. But 
before predicting the day of His death, He spoke to them 
on the general judgment, saying that He would come 
again od earth, not as a man subject to infirmities, but in 
all His divine majesty, accompanied by a multitude of 
angels, and that He would gather together before Him 
in the Yalley of Josaphat all the nations of the earth. 
He foretold that the good would be separated from the 
bad, the former to be admitted to the eternal joys of 
heaven, and the latter to be condemned to the everlasting 
pains of hell. He also predicted the destruction of Jeru- 
salem, and the reprobation of the Jewish nation, and its 
dispersion all over the world. Then the Divine Master 
resumed His subject, asking His disciples if they remem- 



32 MEDITATIONS ON THE SUFFERINGS OF CHRIST. 

bered that in two days the Pasch would be celebrated 
and that He would be the victim. 

Father Louis Novarino remarks that after Jesus Christ 
had foretold that He would come again in all the majesty 
of His glory, He immediately added that the day of His 
death was fast approaching. This was for the purpose 
of making us understand the relation which exists be- 
tween the mystery of the cross and that of glory ; hence 
those wishing to enter the glory of heaven should not 
refuse to accept and bear the cross with patience and 
■ ation. Moreover, the same author says that those 
who desire to avoid the punishments due to their sins 
and escape the wrath of God will find means for so 
doing in the meditation of Christ's passion. In fact, how 
can we more efficaciously satisfy the justice of the Eternal 
Father than by offering to Him all the suflerings of His 
Divine Son ? And how can we more surely obtain the 
mercy of Jesus than by contemplating His sacred wounds 
and endeavoring to crucify our rebellious passions for 
His love '. 

A profound theologian, commenting on this evangelical 
passage, says that as soon as Jesus had finished speaking 
of the destruction of Jerusalem, the general judgi 
and the consummation of the world, He immediately an- 
nounced His- litter passion and painful death, fixing ex- 
actly the day and the manner of its occurrence. It seemed 
almost incredible that in so short a time and on so solemn 
a festival such a crime would be jDerpetrated. But in 
only two days the Jews had found the traitor, agreed 
upon the manner of the betrayal, arrested Jesus, put Him 
in prison, gathered the council, examined His cause, con- 
demned Him to death, presented Him to Pontius Pilate 
for the ratification of the sentence, and crucified Him 



JESUS AGAIN PREDICTS HIS BITTER PASSION. 33 

between two thieves. Who could have imagined that 
the Jews would commit so heinous a crime at the time of 
the great and joyful festival of Easter, which commemo- 
rated their deliverance from the bondage of Egypt ? Yet 
our Lord frankly asserted that they would, saying : " You 
know that after two days shall be the Pasch, and the Son 
of man shall be delivered up to be crucified" (St. Matt. 
xxvi. 2). 

Let us now consider the goodness of our Holy Re- 
deemer in so admirably disposing His apostles for His 
future death : let us consider also their grief and con- 
sternation on hearing from the lips of their beloved 
Master that in two days He would be delivered up to be 
crucified. If we had been present at this touching dis- 
course, what emotions would we not have felt? Let us 
excite in ourselves those same feelings by meditating on 
those words : " You know that after two days shall be the 
Pasch, and the Son of man shall be delivered up to be 
crucified." 

Second Point. 

Dionysius Carthusianus asks why our Lord predicted 
His passion to His disciples, and answers himself by say- 
ing that Jesus did so for three reasons : first, that it 
should not appear that He was arrested unawares, or con- 
demned to death against His will; secondly, that He 
might fortify His disciples, and prepare them to suffer 
with patience and resignation ; thirdly, that they might 
know that He went voluntarily to Jerusalem, though 
aware that He would be arrested and put to death. 

Jesus did not ignore His enemies, and instead of avoid- 
ing them as He did on other occasions, He went among 
them that they might do to Him as they desired. St. 



34 MEDITATIONS ON THE SUFFERINGS OF CHRIST. 

Anselm, Archbishop of Canterbury, says that Christ not 
only predicted but also specified the day on which His 
passion would occur, in order that all should know that 
nothing is hidden from Him, and that He went of His 
own free will to suffer death. He journeyed from Galilee 
to Judea to celebrate Easter, and on the eve of the same 
went from Bethania to Jerusalem to be crucified. Origen, 
commenting on the above-quoted passage of the holy 
Gospel, says that many were the motives which concurred 
to deliver Jesus to death, but not all proposed the same 
end : the ends differed according to the different emo- 
tions and passions. The Eternal Father delivered His 
only -begotten Son to death through His love and mercy 
for mankind ; Judas betrayed His Divine Master through 
avarice; the priests condemned Him to death through 
envy, the scribes and Pharisees through malice. Satan 
instigated the enemies of Jesus to put Him to death, 
because he feared that the exemplary life and preaching 
of Jesus would save many souls from hell : the infernal 
enemy did not reflect that the death of the Messias could 
more easily free us than His preaching. 

But for what reasons do we sometimes deliver Him 
again to death by committing sin ? Alas ! our motives 
for doing so are often less weighty than those of Lucifer, — 
perhaps to satisfy a sinful passion or to revenge ourselves. 
Yet faith teaches us that Christ Jesus died on account of 
our sins, and Holy Scripture says that those who griev- 
ously sin deliver Him up again to death as far as in them 
lies. 

"We believe these truths, yet we will not be guided by 
them. "We offend God, as it were, by habit. We do not 
reflect on the evils we do to our souls which cost the 
Eternal Son of God all of His most precious blood. We 



JESUS AGAIN PREDICTS HIS BITTER PASSION. 35 

ought, therefore, from time to time, to meditate on these 
truths of our holj faith, and consider what a great evil 
we do every time we sin. We ought to call to mind fre- 
quently that Jesus is our God, our Redeemer, our Judge, 
our Benefactor. In order to do this let us accompany 
Him as He goes to offer Himself as a victim of expiation 
for our sins, and He will grant us the grace of true 
repentance. 



36 MEDITATIONS ON THE SUFFERINGS OF CHRIST. 



CONSIDEKATION V. 

The Chief Priests and Ancients of the People con- 
sult how to apprehend Jesus and put Him to 
Death. 

" Then were gathered together the chief priests and ancients of 
the people into the court of the high priest who was called Cai- 
phas: And they consulted together that by subtilty they might 
apprehend Jesus and put Him to death." — St. Matt. xxvi. 3, 4. 

First Point. 

WHILE Jesus in the home of Mary Magdalene was 
speaking of His approaching passion, there assem- 
bled in the palace of Caiphas in Jerusalem a great coun- 
cil composed of the chief priests, the ancients of the 
people, and the Pharisees, bitter enemies of our Lord, 
who had gathered together in order to deliberate as to 
how they might apprehend Jesus by subtilty, and M T ith- 
out trial condemn Him to death. On several previous 
occasions this council had assembled for the same pur- 
pose, but as the time for the solemn sacrifice had not yet 
arrived, all their perfidious designs were frustrated. In 
the southern part of Jerusalem may be seen a mount 
called the Mount of the Evil Council, where, as tradition 
relates, Caiphas had a summer residence to which he 
several times brought his wicked counsellors to treat in 
secret of this impious affair. 

The immediate cause of the convention at the palace 
was the resurrection of Lazarus. St. John the Evangel- 



JESUS' ENEMIES CONSPIRE TO KILL HIM. 37 

ist says that this great miracle led many of the Jews to 
believe in the divinity of Jesus, some of whom going to 
the city related the event to the Pharisees, Christ's most 
bitter enemies. Upon hearing of such a miracle, any 
one of unbiassed opinion would have said : " If this Man 
performs prodigies and great miracles, it is a sign that 
He is from God. Let us, therefore, hear His doctrine, 
imitate His holy example, and embrace His new law." 
But as the enemies of Jesus were ruled by passion rather 
than conscience, they said to one another : " If we permit 
this man to preach and propagate His new doctrine among 
the people, the time will come when we will all believe in 
Him and become His followers. Then the Eomans will 
come and conquer us, and overturn our seats, and destroy 
our prestige with the people, and become masters of our- 
selves and of our nation." 

Caiphas, the high priest of that year, rose up in the 
midst of the assembly, and, overtaken by the spirit of 
God, prophesied, saying : " You know nothing, neither 
do you consider that it is expedient for you that one man 
should die for the people, and that the whole nation per- 
ish not" (St. John xi. 49, 50). From that moment 
they determined to put Jesus to death, not to save their 
nation, but to satisfy their envy and hatred. The Divine 
Master, knowing their design, avoided them as much as 
possible until His time had come. 

Let us now consider how pernicious is the passion of 
envy. The holiest works, the most stupendous miracles, 
excite in the envious man only emotions of malice. While 
others are filled with admiration and esteem, he becomes 
sad and suspicious. Let us recommend ourselves to the 
God of mercy that He may preserve us from so terrible 
and pernicious a vice. ^g 



38 MEDITATIONS ON THE SUFFERINGS OF CHRIST. 

Second Point. 

Easter was near at hand ; and the Jews, knowing that 
Jesus was accustomed to celebrate it at Jerusalem, gath- 
ered again in secret against Him, and conspired to appre- 
hend Him and condemn Him to death. All agreed to 
arrest Him by stratagem, because they feared that, should 
they attempt to take Him in public, He would evade 
them as He had previously done. Moreover, they were 
much perplexed about fixing the day for putting Him to 
death ; for they said, " JSTot on the festival day, lest there 
should be a tumult among the people" (St. Mark xiv. 
2). They had good reasons to fear the indignation of 
the people, because the Divine Master had never done 
evil to any one ; on the contrary, He had benefited all, 
and was, consequently, very popular. Many had accepted 
His holy doctrine, and they would boldly defend Him 
against injustice. 

Besides, as the feast of the Pasch was celebrated 
only in Jerusalem, there would assemble there people 
from Galilee, Samaria, Phoenicia, Idumea, Tragonidides, 
— in short, from all the Jewish tribes. Many were the 
blind whom He had illumined, the lame whom He had 
made to walk, the leprous whom He had cleansed, the 
sick whom He had cured, the hungry whom He had sat- 
isfied, the dead whom He had resuscitated ; and it could 
not be doubted that among the crowds then gathering at 
the holy city there would be some of those favored ones 
who would surely defend their Benefactor. The scribes 
and Pharisees, therefore, greatly feared a popular revolt ; 
hence they said, " Not on the festival day, lest there 
should be a tumult among the people ;" let us wait until 
after the feast, when all shall have returned to their homes, 



JESTJS' ENEMIES CONSPIRE TO KILL HIM. 39 

and then we will arrest Him and put Him to death. 
During this discussion, Judas the traitor entered, and vol- 
unteered to deliver his Divine Master into their power ; 
immediately they changed their determination. We shall 
see in the following chapter how this betrayal was ac- 
complished ; for the present, let us consider with St. 
Thomas of Villanova the motives which induced the 
priests, the ancients of the people, the scribes and Phar- 
isees, to condemn their Messias to death. The chief 
priests and the Pharisees gathered together and said: 
u What do we, for this Man doth many miracles : here 
is His crime. What, therefore, shall we do ?" O infa- 
mous ! O perverse ! Jesus must be recognized as the 
true Son of God ; He must be venerated, He must be 
worshipped, He must be adored. " But if we adore Him," 
they answer, " all will believe in Him ; and the Romans 
will come, they will banish us, and conquer and destroy 
our nation." But why do you fear this Man ? What 
appearance of royalty do you discern in Him who is so 
poor and humble ? And if He should be declared king 
of the Jews, fear not ; for as He has power to perform 
miracles and prodigies, so also has He power to defend 
your nation against the Romans. His only crime is that 
He has performed miracles, that by His omnipotent 
power He has given sight to the blind, raised the dead 
to life. For this reason you should worship, serve, and 
love Him, instead of condemning Him. O unparalleled 
audacity ! O unequalled blindness ! 

Let us now come to ourselves. What are the crimes 
of Jesus Christ, when we banish Him from our souls 
and allow the devil to take possession of them ? Do His 
crimes perhaps consist in having created us out of noth- 
ing in preference to millions and millions of possible 



40 MEDITATIONS ON THE SUFFERINGS OF CHRIST. 

beings who would probably have served Him more faith- 
fully than we ? in having called us to the bosom of our 
holy Mother the Catholic Church, while thousands and 
thousands are wandering in the midst of darkness ? in 
having redeemed us from the slavery of sin and the 
tyranny of hell, by shedding the last drop of His most 
precious blood ? in having preserved us from many dis- 
eases, persecutions, and misfortunes ? in having enriched 
us with temporal and spiritual goods ? in having sent us 
so many inspirations, granted us so many graces and 
favors % What merits had we in the sight of God to be 
so signally favored in preference to so many Turks, idol- 
aters, heretics, schismatics, and sinners? Our answer 
shall be the second spiritual fruit of this consideration. 



JUDAS BETKAYS HIS DIVINE MASTER. 41 



CONSIDEBATION VI. 

Judas sells his Divine Master for Thirty Pieces 
of Silver. 

" Then went one of the twelve, who was called Judas Iscariot, 
to the chief priests: and he said to them: "What will you give me, 
and I will deliver Him unto you ? But they appointed him thirty 
pieces of silver." — St. Matt. xxvi. 14, 15. 

Ferst Point. 

fPHE chief priests and the ancients were, meantime, 
-*- assembled in council in the palace of Caiphas, when 
Judas Iscariot, the traitor, came among them ; and, 
boldly and openly divulging his perfidious designs, ex- 
claimed, " What will you give me, and I will deliver Him 
unto you?" (St.Matt. xxvi. 15.) A pious author, explain- 
ing this evangelical passage, observes that its every word 
deserves the most serious consideration, each one being 
replete with the gravest meaning. He then proceeds to 
examine the rank which Judas held, and he finds it so emi- 
nent that it seems impossible for a person occupying such a 
position to form in his heart so perfidious a design against 
his gracious and amiable benefactor. " Judas Iscariot," the 
same author says, " was one of the twelve ; that is, he was 
not a stranger ; he was not confounded amid the crowds 
that daily followed Jesus ; nay, he was not simply one of 
the seventy-two disciples : he was one of the twelve, 
called to the apostolate by Jesus Christ Himself ; one 
who had heard from the divine lips of Incarnate "Wisdom 



42 MEDITATIONS ON THE SUFFERINGS OF CHRIST. 

the sublime and supernatural doctrine of heaven ; one 
who had received the power of healing the sick and of 
casting out devils. Finally, he was one who had been 
distinguished among his companions by his appointment 
to the office, which he then held, of treasurer and dis 
penser of the alms offered by generous benefactors for 
distribution among the poor, as well as for the corporal 
maintenance of Jesus and His followers. 

Now, thisingrate presented himself to the chief priests, 
his Divine Master's bitterest enemies, who had assembled 
on former occasions and deliberated as to how they could 
put Him to death, and were now only awaiting a favor- 
able opportunity to execute their heinous designs. Judas 
enacted this treachery without cause. He was not insti- 
gated nor even advised to do so by any one ; he acted 
through mere malice. When did this ingrate enter upon 
the execution of his diabolical project and set out on his 
journey to the palace of Caiphas ? He did not go there 
wheu the enemies of Jesus were apart, but when they 
were gathered together, deliberating how they might be 
enabled to apprehend Him and put Him to death. Then 
it was that Judas appeared and stood ready to carry out 
their nefarious plans. " "What will you give me," he 
eagerly exclaimed, " and I will deliver Him unto you 2" 
This is equivalent to saying, " I have something to sell, 
but something so despicable that I do not dare to affix a 
price to it ; do you yourselves name the amount you are 
willing to advance." They then offered him thirty pieces 
of silver. " They appointed him thirty pieces of silver." 
Judas was well satisfied with this sum of money ; and, 
from that hour forth he exerted himself to find the 
earliest opportunity of carrying his infamous project into 
execution. 



JUDAS BETRAYS HIS DIVINE MASTER. 43 

But the malice of the fallen apostle does not stop here 
Dionysius Carthusianus, commenting upon the above- 
quoted text of the Gospel, says that the traitor left 
Bethania after having heard his Divine Master foretell 
that He would be crucified within two days. The same 
author further observes that Judas, when presenting 
himself to the chief priests and ancients of the people, 
was fully convinced of the divinity of Jesus Christ, and 
knew, or, at least, had reason to believe, that the enemies 
of his Divine Master were already assembled in order to 
compass His arrest and execution. Hence the ingrate 
unceremoniously inquires, "What are you willing to 
give me ? " He might as well have said, " I know what 
motive has brought you together; I know the object of 
your discussions ; I know what causes your uneasiness : 
behold, I am here, able and ready to extricate yon from 
your perplexity. Only tell how much you will pay me 
for my services, and I will deliver Him unto you in the 
secret manner which you desire." 

Unhappy Judas ! f oolish and infamous merchant ! How 
have you become so blind as to commit a crime so atro- 
cious, so horrible, so heinous ? Do you, then, value your 
Divine Master at so low a rate as to be willing to sell 
Him for thirty pieces of silver? And you would, per- 
haps, have sold Him for less, had less been offered? O 
Judas ! how has your Master offended you ? Ingrate, so 
soon, then, you forget the many favors you have received 
from Him ! Do you not remember His numerous 
miracles? or do you think that Jesus cannot evade your 
snares as, on many previous occasions, He evaded those 
of His other enemies ? Unhappy Judas ! You have 
sold tli3 gem of Paradise, the joy of heaven, the beloved 
of God. For thirty pieces of silver you have bartered the 



44 MEDITATIONS ON TIIE SUFFERINGS OF CHRIST. 

Lamb, a drop of whose blood is infinitely more valuable 
than all the silver and gold in the world. 

The betrayal of Judas is of such a nature that the more 
we consider it, the more it excites our anger and fills us 
with horror. But our indignation against the evil deeds 
of that treacherous apostle will avail nothing unless we 
detest our faults from the bottom of our hearts. It is 
true that our faults may not exhibit the deep malice 
which we perceive in the betrayal of Judas ; yet we must 
ever remember that they offend the majesty of God. 

Second Point. 

Having excited in our hearts an intense detestation of 
Judas's terrible crime, let us pass to a consideration of 
the causes which induced him to betray his Divine 
Master. 

Dionysius Carthusian us says that the treachery of 
Judas should not surprise us, for he was avaricious ; and 
the avaricious man is capable of any crime. Indeed, we 
can easily see from the context of the Gospel that avarice, 
and avarice alone, dragged Judas to the abyss of iniquity 
into which he fell. 

St. Matthew speaks of a banquet which a certain Simon, 
surnamed the leper, gave to our Divine Lord and His 
disciples some time during the brief sojourn of Jesus in 
Bethania, previous to the celebration of the Jewish Pasch. 
The Evangelist relates that while Jesus was seated at 
table, a woman — probably Mary Magdalene — entered the 
room, carrying an alabaster box of precious ointment, and 
that, having come near to Him, she poured the ointment 
on His sacred head. This action was witnessed by the 
apostles, who began to murmur, saying, " To what pur- 



JUDAS BETRAYS HIS DIVINE MASTER. 45 

pose is this waste ? For this might have been sold for 
much and given to the poor." Our Lord heard those 
murmurings and gently reproved His disciples for them. 
He admonished them against blaming the conduct of the 
woman, for she had wrought a good work upon Him ; and, 
refuting their reasoning concerning the needs of the poor, 
He said, " For the poor you have always with you : but 
Me you have not always. For she in pouring this 
ointment upon My body, hath done it for My burial " 
(Matt, xx vi. 11, 12). 

The apostles at once acquiesced, submissively accepting 
this amiable reprimand, Judas excepted. He, because he 
was a thief — " et latro erat " — would not submit. Being 
treasurer and procurator of what may be called the house- 
hold of our Lord, he thought that if the precious oint- 
ment were intrusted to him, he could sell it and retain 
part of the price for himself. Because his miserly desire 
was not gratified, he became furiously enraged. He left 
the house, went directly to Jerusalem, presented himself 
to the chief priests and ancients of the people, and be- 
trayed his Divine Master, selling Him for the paltry sum 
of thirty pieces of silver to indemnify himself, as it were, 
for the money he deemed he had lost by not being able 
to obtain and sell the precious ointment. Having ac- 
complished his execrable design, Judas returned to 
Bethania. Our Blessed Lord knew the heinous crime 
which His wretched apostle had perpetrated ; the traitor's 
guilt glared from his countenance : yet Jesus did not re- 
proach him, nor show any resentment towards him. On 
the contrary, He went to meet him, as some pious authors 
say, and tenderly embraced and kissed him. Our Divine 
Lord acted thus in order to move the heart of Judas to 
repentance and induce him to detest his grievous sin. 



46 MEDITATIONS ON THE SUFFERINGS OF CHRIST. 

But the traitor, far from casting himself at the feet of his 
Merciful Master and imploring pardon, remained obsti- 
nate. 

Behold to what a miserable state avarice, the love of 
gold and silver, has reduced an apostle ! Those in whom 
this dangerous and baleful passion predominates, seldom 
correct themselves. They fear that they may be deprived 
of the necessaries of life, and they reckon among such 
necessaries goods which are entirely superfluous. The 
avaricious have no mercy, no sense of humanity ; they have 
no compassion for the needy, and often they do not suf- 
ficiently provide even for themselves. Nothing can move 
them, soften them, deter them. Neither death, nor judg- 
ment, nor heaven, nor hell, nor eternity can affect their 
sordid hearts. Judas had often seen his Divine Master 
render Himself invisible to His enemies and pass through 
their very midst; he had seen Jesus perform many 
miracles ; he had had countless proofs of His omnipo- 
tence and divinity. But Judas was no longer subject to 
reason : ruled by avarice, he could only think of gold 
and silver. Gold and silver absorbed all his thoughts, 
and their acquisition constituted his desires. Let the 
soul be lost, let Christ be sold as a slave — it matters not, 
so riches be acquired ! O Judas, what a terrible example 
your life affords of the miseries to which avarice surely 
leads ! Terrible warning for all. Alas, that for many it 
is given in vain ! Let us endeavor to profit by it, and 
never regard as lost what we give for the glory of God 
and the support of the poor. 



JESUS TAKES LEAVE OF HIS BELOVED MOTHER. 47 



CONSIDEKATION VII. 

Jesus Christ takes leave of His Beloved Mother. 

" To what shall I compare thee ? or to what shall I liken thee, 
daughter of Jerusalem ? to what shall I equal thee, that I 
may comfort thee, O virgin daughter of Sion ? For great as the 
sea is thy destruction." — Lamentations ii. 13. 

Fikst Point. 

THE holy Gospel does not mention that onr Divine 
Saviour held a farewell interview with His beloved 
Mother, but we may piously believe that He did. It is 
very probable that Jesus, who had always conducted Him- 
self with the greatest respect and utmost submission 
towards His blessed Mother, did not undertake the rough 
road to Calvary without acquainting her of His intentions 
and seeking her consent. This is the opinion of the 
Seraphic Doctor, St. Bonaventure, who describes the last 
farewell which our Lord took of His Mother before 
entering upon His passion ; and this opinion is confirmed 
by the revelations which Mary made to St. Bridget. In- 
deed, it is but reasonable to believe that God, who sought 
consent of the holy Virgin before taking flesh in her pure 
womb, should likewise ask her permission to consummate 
the grand sacrifice which was the chief end of His mission 
on earth. "Who can describe the emotions of a dutiful 
and loving; son when taking leave of his mother to set out 
upon a long and dangerous journey ? Language is inade- 



48 MEDITATIONS ON THE SUFFERINGS OF CHRIST. 

quate to such a task. If this medium fails to express what 
a mere man feels on those occasions, how can it depict 
the intensity of grief experienced by a son, who, besides 
being man, is also God ; and who, instead of going on a 
journey to a distant country, is about to go to the place 
of execution to suffer a most cruel and ignominious death ? 
If the grief of the son is inexpressible, what shall we 
say of that of the mother, who is naturally more sensitive 
and affectionate? However, availing ourselves of the 
meditations of St. Bonaventui-e, we shall imagine that 
Jesus Christ is in Bethania at the house of Martha. It 
is the eve of the Jewish Pasch, commemorated in our day 
on the evening of Wednesday in Holy Week. Immedi- 
ately after supper Jesus takes His Mother aside, and 
leads her into a solitary apartment. There they sit down, 
and after a prolonged and painful silence, Jesus thus ad- 
dresses Mary : 

" My dearly beloved Mother, but little time remains 
for Me to be with you. It is the will of My Eternal 
Father; I must accomplish the end for which I came 
into the world. The time for the redemption of man- 
kind has arrived ; all the prophecies concerning Me are 
now to be fulfilled; I shall be delivered into the hands 
of My enemies, and they will scourge Me, crown Me M^ith 
thorns, and crucify Me. I thank you. My dear Mother, 
for all the toils and hardships which you have endured 
for My sake ; and, as you gave your consent to My incar- 
nation, I now wish you to give your consent to My 
death." 

Thus speaks Jesus, the most dutiful of sons ; but what 
answer comes from the most loving of mothers ? Oh ! 
how justly may we address Mary in the language of 
Scripture : " To what shall I compare thee ? or to what 



JESUS TAKES LEAVE OF HIS BELOVED MOTHER. 49 

shall I liken thee, O daughter of Jerusalem % to what 
shall I equal thee, that I may comfort thee, O virgin 
daughter of Sion ? For great as the sea is thy destruc- 
tion." Mary was transfixed by the bitterness of her 
grief; speech failed her trembling lips, and she gave 
vent to her sorrow in a flood of tears. But, as was re- 
vealed to St. Bridget, those tears, instead of alleviating 
the pain of her beloved Son, only augmented it more and 
more. This increased anguish of Jesus was a fresh source 
of affliction to His blessed Mother. But some may say, 
with St. Bernard, Did not Mary know that her Divine 
Son w r as to die upon the cross? Without doubt she 
knew it ; and, furthermore, she was fully and certainly 
assured as to what was to be the manner of His death. 
Why, therefore, did she grieve for what she had expected, 
especially when she knew that in a few days Jesus would 
give her the ineffable joy and consolation of His tri- 
nmphant resurrection from the tomb ? She grieved be- 
cause she was a mother — and the Mother of God. O 
Mary, most amiable Mother ! by that sword of sorrow 
which pierced thy tender heart when thy dearly beloved 
Son requested thy consent to His immolation upon the 
cross for my salvation, obtain for me a sincere repentance 
of my sins, and the grace that I may never forget that my 
crimes were the cause of thy anguish and that of thy 
Divine Son. 

Second Point. 

When the Archangel Gabriel announced to the Blessed 
Virgin Mary that she had been chosen by Heaven to be 
the mother of the future Messias, she became all disturbed, 
and, before consenting to accept the ineffable honor 
which was about to be conferred upon her, she questioned 



50 MEDITATIONS ON THE SUFFERINGS OF CHRIST. 

the angel, saying, " How shall this be clone ? " So, like- 
wise, when her Divine Son told her that He was about to 
give up His life for the redemption of mankind by dying 
on the cross on Mount Golgotha, she became very much 
distressed, she trembled, and her pure heart was pierced 
by a sword of keenest anguish. It is very true that she 
knew that her beloved Son came down from heaven to 
redeem mankind by shedding the last drop of His pre- 
cious blood ; but, at the same time, she could not easily 
persuade herself to give Him up. Her trouble and per- 
plexity were very great. It was hard to consent to the 
death of her dear and only Son ; still, by refusing her 
consent, she would oppose the will of the Eternal Father 
and interfere with the redemption of mankind. Finding 
herself in the midst of these perplexing doubts and not 
knowing what to do, Mary committed herself entirely 
into the hands of Divine Providence ; and, according to 
the Seraphic Doctor, St. Bonaventure, she addressed our 
Divine Lord in broken and trembling accents, saying, 
" My beloved Son, I feel all disturbed and my heart faints 
within me : let your Eternal Father decide, for I know 
not what to answer." Mary would have said more, but 
her tears and anguish prevented. Knowing that she 
could not change the eternal decrees, she became perfectly 
resigned to the divine will ; and, with an heroic courage 
worthy only of the Mother of God, she not only con- 
sented to the death of her Divine Son, but she resolved 
to accompany Him to Calvary, where, rising superior 
even to herself, she stood at the foot of the cross during 
the three long hours of Jesus' agony, and afterwards re- 
ceived His sacred body into her motherly arms upon its 
descent from the cross. 

St. Bonaventure here exclaims, " Oh ! if you could 



JESUS TAKES LEAVE OF HIS BELOVED MOTHEK. 51 

see how much suffering Mary endured in giving her con- 
sent to the death of her beloved Son, you would, per- 
haps, be melted into tears of compassion. But if you 
cannot see her with your corporal eyes, behold her with 
those of faith ; and know that Mary made this sacrifice 
for love of you. Betake yourself in spirit to Bethania, 
and imagine that you are present at the meeting of Jesus 
and Mary on that sad night, and, prostrating yourself at 
their feet, say, " O Son of the Eternal Father, O Mother 
of the Eternal Son, how can I ever repay you for the 
great love which you manifested for me on this occasion 
of your painful parting ? When shall my heart burn with 
love for you ? O ungrateful heart, can you longer re- 
main attached to creatures and reflect that Mary, the 
Mother of God, so loved you that she willingly gave up 
her dearly beloved Son, and consented that He should 
be put to death for your sake ? Alas ! how long shall 
we seek to gratify our sinful passions — we, miserable 
wretches, for whom the Son of Mary abandoned His 
most amiable Mother, and died upon the cross ? In con- 
clusion, let us remember that we can never become par- 
takers of the eternal glory of heaven unless we endeavor 
to imitate Jesus and Mary in their sufferings. Let us, 
therefore, when oppressed by infirmities, adversities, or 
tribulations, meditate on the sufferings of our Divine 
Saviour, and bear in mind that all the afflictions which 
we have to endure in this vale of tears are merely noth- 
ing when compared with the sufferings of Jesus and 
Mary. 



52 MEDITATIONS ON THE SUFFERINGS OF CHRIST. 



CONSIDEBATION Till. 

Jesus celebrates His Last Pasch with the 
Apostles. 

"And when the hour was come, He sat down, and the twelve 
apostles with Him; and He said to them: With desire I have 
desired to eat this Pasch with you before I suffer."-^. Luke xxn. 
14, 15. 

First Point. 

TT was on the morning of Holy Thursday, which, accord- 
J- ing to the Jewish rite, was the first day of the unleav- 
ened Dread, and occurred on the fourteenth day of the 
moon of March. Jesus was still in Bethania, at the house 
of Martha, His generous and pious benefactress. The 
apostles came to Him and said, "Whither wilt Thou that 
we go, and prepare for Thee to eat the Pasch? " (St. Mark 
xiv. 12.) Choosing two of His disciples, Peter and John, 
Jesus said to them, " Go ye into the city : and there shall 
meet you a man carrying a pitcher of water, follow him : 
and whithersoever he shall go in, say to the master of 
the house, The Master saith: Where is My refectory, 
where I may eat the Pasch with My disciples? And be 
will show you a large dining room furnished : and there 
prepare ye" for us." The Evangelist subjoins, " And His 
disciples" went their way, and came into the city : and 
they found as He had told them, and they prepared the 

Pasch." 

"The poverty and divinity of Jesus Christ are strikingly 
manifested in this evangelical passage. His poverty, be- 



JESUS CELEBRATES HIS LAST PASCH. 53 

cause He had no place wherein to celebrate the Jewish 
Pasch, for which reason He sent His disciples to find a 
place ; His divinity, because, as master of the universe, 
He had only to ask in order to obtain whatever He desired. 
A similar circumstance is connected with His triumphant 
entry into Jerusalem. He then also sent two of His dis- 
ciples to a house to take a beast of burden of which He 
had need. However, His divinity is more manifest in 
this second instance ; for He did not say to His disciples, 
" Go to such a house and tell the master," but He said, 
" Go ye into the city : and there shall meet you a man 
carrying a pitcher of water, follow him : and he will 
show you a large dining-room furnished : and there pre- 
pare ye for us." 

A devout author explaining the reason why our Lord 
did not specify any particular house, says that it was be- 
cause Jesus knew that Judas was seeking an opportunity 
to deliver Him into the hands of His enemies ; and were 
they made aware of where the Pasch was to be celebrated, 
he would inform the chief priests and ancients of the 
people, who would at once send soldiers to disturb the 
feast, and, perhaps, the master of the house. Thus, by not 
mentioning openly the place where He wished to celebrate 
the Pasch, Jesus showed how great was the goodness and 
tenderness of His heart towards His friends. 

At sunset, our Divine Redeemer, accompanied by His 
twelve apostles, set out on the way to Jerusalem. Avoid- 
ing Bethphage and Mount Olivet, He took the road 
which passed near the sepulchre of Josaphat, between 
Mount Olivet and the Mount of Scandal. This was 
the usual and shortest way. Jesus' joy on this eve was 
great, and that of the disciples was not less ; but it was 
a joy that would not outlast the feast. The Divine 



54 MEDITATIONS ON THE SUFFERINGS OF CHRIST. 

Master was well aware of what was to happen at the close 
of that day. He knew that for Him and His beloved 
disciples joy was soon to be turned into sorrow. There- 
fore, we may imagine that upon leaving the house of 
Martha, Jesus said to Himself, " For the last time I am 
leaving Bethania as a mortal man." Proceeding on His 
way, He may have noticed a sycamore-tree, and cried, in 
the sadness of His heart, " On this tree one of My dis- 
ciples will hang himself to-morrow." While crossing the 
valley of Josaphat, He may have glanced towards the 
Garden of Olives and thought, " To-night I shall return 
here, no longer to contemplate the joys of heaven, but 
to abandon Myself to a mortal agony." Passing over the 
torrent of Cedron, He may have said within Himself, 
" I shall cross this torrent again to-night, but not in com- 
pany with My disciples : I shall be bound as a malefactor, 
and surrounded by My bitterest enemies and most cruel 
executioners." Entertaining those pious thoughts in our 
minds, let us go in spirit with Jesus to Jerusalem. It 
will be profitable for us to exercise our imagination in the 
production of vivid pictures of those holy places, for they 
have power to awaken in our minds many pious thoughts 
and tender recollections. 

Second Point. 

Having reached Jerusalem, Jesus proceeded to that por- 
tion of the city which is situated on the southern part of 
Mount Sion. Here was located the house in which the 
Pasch was prepared for Him and His disciples. They 
repaired thither, entered, and found everything in readi- 
ness. After a brief interval of rest they took their 
places at the table and began to eat the legal supper, 



JESUS CELEBRATES HIS LAST PASCH. 55 

which consisted of unleavened bread, some lettuce, and 
roast lamb. According to the Jewish rite, this paschal 
lamb was specially selected from the flock, was spotless, 
and, five days before the sacrifice, was brought to Jeru- 
salem amid rejoicing and festivity. This celebrated feast 
of the Passover was ever a joyous one among the Jews, 
for it commemorated that happy night on which the 
Angel of the Lord slew all the first-born of the Egyp- 
tians, thus delivering the Israelites from their cruel 
bondage; and, opening a path for them through the 
Red Sea, God guided them miraculously across the 
desert into the promised land. In memory of those 
benefits the Jews were obliged to eat the paschal lamb 
standing and with staves in their hands. 

While Jesus was partaking of the mysterious lamb, 
His divine countenance suddenly lighted up and beamed 
for a moment with unusual joy ; then, turning to His 
disciples, He sighed deeply and said, "With desire I have 
desired to eat this Pasch with you before I suffer. For 
I say to-you, that from this time I will not eat it, till it 
be fulfilled in the kingdom of God." Having spoken 
these words, Jesus took the chalice into His sacred hands 
and, after giving thanks, said, "Take, and divide it 
among you ; for I say to you, that I will not drink of 
the fruit of the vine, till the kingdom of God come " 
(St. Luke xxii. 15-18). 

" Oh, how wondrous was the magnanimity of Jesus 
Christ ! " exclaims St. Laurence Justinian, commenting 
upon the conduct of our Divine Lord at the Last Supper. 
And truly what soul can be so insensible as not to be 
moved by it ? Jesus Christ is about to enter upon His 
bitter passion ; before His mind arises a vision of all the 
opprobrium so soon to be heaped upon Him ; He knows 



56 MEDITATIONS ON THE SUFFERINGS OF CHRIST. 

that this night will be for Him a night of anguish and 
torments ; He knows that on the morrow at this same 
hour He will be dead, even taken from the cross and 
buried. Yet He is full of joy ; all His thoughts are 
directed to His disciples ; He endeavors to console and 
comfort them, without any concern whatever for Him- 
self. Such utter disinterestedness is out of the common 
order of nature ; for we know that a man about to be 
executed, far from experiencing a feeling of joy and exul- 
tation, becomes saddened and all concentrated in himself. 
He grows oblivious to all around him, thinking only of 
his own dread fate and the terrible journey on which he 
is to depart. JSot so, however, with Jesus Christ. He 
seems to forget Himself, anxious only to console His dis- 
ciples : thus He clearly manifested His charity, magna- 
nimity, and divinity. 

O admirable love ! O love truly worthy of the Son 
of God ! And shall we not endeavor to correspond to 
this divine charity ? Shall we remain indifferent or 
lukewarm towards our loving Redeemer ? Alas ! if we 
have hitherto been ungrateful, let us resolve to be so no 
more. If we have not the heroic virtue which animated 
the saints with an eager desire of suffering in order to 
please God, let us at least bear with patience and resigna- 
tion the unavoidable trials and sufferings of our daily life. 

In order to derive more profit from this meditation, 
let us imagine ourselves present in the supper-room with 
Jesus and the apostles, lovingly admitted there to par- 
take with them of the legal supper ; then we may con- 
sider as addressed to ourselves those affectionate words 
which the fond Master spoke to His disciples : " With 
desire I have desired to eat this Pasch with you before I 
suffer." 



JESUS WASHES HIS APOSTLES' FEET. 57 



CONSIDEKATION IX. 
Jesus washes His Apostles' Feet. 

"He cometh therefore to Simon Peter. And Peter saith to 
Him: Lord, dost Thou wash my feet ? . . . Thou shalt never wash 
my feet." — St. John xiii. 6, 8. 

Fiest Point. 

rpHE legal supper of the paschal lamb being ended, 
-L Jesus Christ wished to give another supper which 
should prove an additional wonder of love. He arose 
from the table, and, laying aside His garments, took a 
towel with which He girded Himself; He then poured 
water into a basin, " and began to wash the feet of the 
disciples, and to wipe them with the towel wherewith He 
was girded." He came to Simon Peter ; but this fervent 
disciple, overwhelmed with confusion at the thought of 
the grandeur and divine majesty of Him who presented 
Himself in so humble a posture before him, cried out, 
" Lord, dost Thou wash my feet ?" This was the same 
as to say: "Lord, Thou who art the Creator of heaven 
and earth ; Thou who hadst no beginning, and shalt never 
have end ; Thou in whose presence the Angels tremble 
and the Seraphim bow down ; Thou who art the Son of 
God, the Holy One ! — and dost Thou come to wash my 
feet ? to perform this menial service towards me, a man 
so full of imperfections, a mere worm of the earth ? And 



58 MEDITATIONS ON THE SUFFERINGS OF CHRIST. 

Thou comest to wash my feet with those omnipotent hands 
which built the heavens and laid the foundations of the 
earth ! with those hands with which Thou openedst the 
eyes of the blind, and the ears of the deaf, and gave speech 
to the dumb ! with those pure hands which cleansed the 
leper, fed the hungry, banished evil spirits, and raised the 
dead ! And Thou comest to wash, not my hands, but my 
feet which are less noble members of my body ! Lord, 
Thou wash my feet ! Thou prostrate Thyself before me, 
while all created things, celestial, terrestrial, and infernal 
are prostrate before Thee !" 

St. John Chrysostom, paraphrasing the words of St. 
Peter, puts these words into the mouth of the apostle : 
" Thou art the master, I am the servant ; Thou art the 
creator, I am the creature ; Thou art God, I am only man ; 
Thou wishest to wash my feet, and I, a poor, miserable 
sinner — no ! it shall not be : Thou shalt never wash my 
feet!" 

Thus did St. Peter in the fervor of his love speak to 
his Divine Master. Jesus knew that Peter's repugnance 
sprung from the profound respect and veneration which 
he entertained for his Lord. Yet, to show us that obedi- 
ence is better than sacrifice, and that it should be pre- 
ferred before any other virtue, Jesus, with a serene and 
majestic countenance, said to St. Peter, " If I wash thee 
not, thou shalt have no part with Me." Peter, affrighted 
by this terrible menace, exclaimed, " Lord, not only my 
feet, but also my hands and my head !" But the Divine 
Redeemer knew well the cleanness of heart of him whom 
He had chosen for His vicar on earth, and the visible 
head of the Church militant. With great affability Jesus 
reassured him, saying: "He that is washed needeth not 
but to wash his feet, but is clean wholly. And you are 



JESUS WASHES HIS APOSTLES' FEET. 59 

clean, but not all" (St. John xiii. 10). Without manifest- 
ing to the other disciples the treachery of Judas, Jesus 
abruptly broke off His discourse, well satisfied that Judas 
understood the dread allusion which was conveyed in the 
words, " And you are clean, but not all." Jesus wished 
to intimate to Judas that his treachery was known, in 
order that the wretch might realize in his guilty soul that 
nothing is hidden from his Divine Master. 

Then the Saviour proceeded to wash the feet of the 
other apostles ; nor did He meet with any resistance from 
them : they were too much affrighted by the words which 
Jesus addressed to Peter, — him who was to be their head 
and master after the withdrawal of Christ's visible pres- 
ence. 

Here we should pause to reflect on the profound humil- 
ity of our Holy Redeemer in washing His disciples' feet. 
In imitation of Him, let us resolve to be humble also. 
Let us frequently make acts of this great virtue, espec- 
ially when about to approach the Holy Sacrament of the 
Eucharist, in order to render ourselves more worthy of 
its reception. 

Second Point. 

Theophylactus, commenting on the above mysterious 
ceremony of the Washing of Peet, offers as his opinion 
that Jesus Christ did not first approach St. Peter, but 
Judas Iscariot ; and that the Divine Master adopted this 
course of action in order to give the traitor a marked 
sign of His love and esteem, and a token of the ready 
and generous pardon which he could at once obtain if 
he would only repent of his crime. This opinion is 
deduced partly from the Gospel, partly from a considera- 
tion of the wickedness of Judas, and partly from a con- 



60 MEDITATIONS ON THE SUFFERINGS OF CHRIST. 

ception of the profound respect which the other apostles 
entertained for our Lord. Theophylactus reasons thus : 
The Gospel says that Jesus Christ " began to wash the 
feet of the disciples, and to wipe them with the towel 
wherewith He was girded." Then He came to Peter, ac- 
cording to the Latin text, " Deinde venit ad PetrumP 
Therefore, before approaching the feet of Peter, our Lord 
had already washed those of some other disciple. But, 
excepting Judas, which of the apostles could witness so 
great an abasement of his Divine Master, and not offer 
the slightest resistance nor manifest the least sign of sur- 
prise \ If Christ had opened the ceremony by washing 
the feet of any apostle other than Judas, undoubtedly 
such apostle would have said as Peter did say a moment 
later, "Lord, dost Thou wash my feet?" But these or 
similar words were spoken by none except Peter ; at least 
there is no scriptural record of such an utterance made 
by any other apostle. In all probability, therefore, Jesus 
began the ceremony of the Washing of Feet by prostrat- 
ing Himself before Judas, the only disciple who could 
witness such a sight without showing any sign of surprise 
or confusion. St. Bernard entertained the same opinion. 
" The perfidy of Judas," the holy Doctor maintains, " was 
not unknown to his Divine Master ; Jesus knew well that 
Judas' feet were running fast in the dread path which led 
to consummate treachery and deicide: yet He did not 
hesitate to deal with him as with the other apostles ; nay, 
Judas was the very first before whom the Divine Master 
prostrated Himself in the performance of this extraor- 
dinary act of humility." At this point in his com- 
mentary, St. Bernard breaks out into the following im- 
passioned apostrophe : " O man, thou who art but dust 
and ashes, how darest thou lift up thy head in pride and 



JESUS "WASHES HIS APOSTLES' FEET. 61 

arrogance ? How darest thou give way to impatience and 
anger? Behold and admire the meekness and humility 
of Jesus Christ, the Creator of heaven and earth, the 
Judge of the living and the dead, and be ashamed and 
confounded at the thought of thy pride and haughtiness ! 
He who is God prostrates Himself before mere men ; 
and thou, a vile worm of the earth, disdainest to humble 
thyself before God ! He who is innocence itself, He who 
is sanctity itself, deigns to wash the vile feet of Judas the 
traitor ; and thou who art guilty of a thousand crimes 
refusest to approach the sacred tribunal to wash away thy 
iniquity! He, before instituting the most august Sacra- 
ment of the Altar, humbled Himself so far as to wash 
the feet of Judas; and thou, before partaking of the 
Eucharistic banquet, art unwilling to banish from thy 
heart the hatred and rancor which thou entertainest to- 
wards those persons who have given thee offence ! " 

Thus reasons a holy Doctor of the Church ; and thus 
also should we reason if we would derive spiritual profit 
from the sublime lesson of humility which our amiable 
Redeemer gives us in the washing of His disciples' feet. 
For this purpose let us frequently repeat those words of 
St. Peter, " Lord, dost Thou wash my feet?" Let us often 
meditate on them, as also on those words of St. Francis 
of Assisi who, unable to express the ardor of divine love 
which he experienced at the thought of Christ's humility 
in becoming our food, used frequently to say, "My God, 
my God ! who art Thou, and who am I? My God, my 
God ! who art Thou, and who am I?" 

The principal fruits which we should derive from this 
meditation are a great horror of pride, which is the root 
of all other vices, and a profound esteem for holy humil- 
ity, the queen of virtues and the foundation of Christian 



62 MEDITATIONS ON THE SUFFERINGS OF CHRIST. 

perfection. The proud can never be dear to God, and 
they soon become odious to men ; but the humble are 
beloved by all and advance in virtue from day to day. 
Let us learn from the example of our Blessed Redeemer 
to practise the holy virtue of humility, and we shall re- 
ceive an immense reward in time and in eternity. 



JESUS' WOEDS AFTER THE WASHING OJF FEET. 63 



CONSIDERATION X. 

Words spoken by our Holy Redeemer after the 
Washing of Feet. 

" Then after He had washed their feet, and taken His garments, 
being set down again, He said to them: Know you what I have 
done to you ? You call me Master, and Lord: and you say well, 
for so I am. If then I, being your Lord and Master, have washed 
your feet: you also ought to wash one another's feet." — JSt. John 
xiii. 12-14. 



i 

Lo 



First Point. 

A FTER having washed the feet of His dearly beloved 
-*--*- disciples, Jesus Christ exhorted them to love one 
nother and to practise holy humility, the queen of all 
irtues. He said to them : " You call me Master, and 
rd : and you say well, for so I am. If then I, who am 
your Lord and Master, have washed your feet, you also 
ought to wash one another's feet." This address was 
tantamount to saying, "If I, the King of kings, the Lord 
of lords, the Creator of heaven and earth, have so far 
abased Myself as to wash the feet of My creatures, My 
disciples, to wash the feet of Judas; how much more 
ought you to do the same to one another, to pity one an- 
another, love one another, help one another: you who 
are children of the same Father, who are all alike but 
dust and ashes, who are all subject to the same diseases, 
miseries, and misfortunes! Do, therefore, to one an- 
other as I have done to yon. Blessed, indeed, shall you 
be, if, having penetrated into the meaning of My words 



64 MEDITATIONS ON THE SUFFERINGS OF CHRIST. 

and learned how pleasing to Me is the virtue of humility, 
you endeavor to imitate My example and show yourself 
in every action meek and humble of heart." 

This was the admirable lesson which the Divine Re- 
deemer gave to His apostles after the mysterious Wash- 
ing of Feet. A pious author explaining these words, 
" Know you what I have done to you ? " speaks thus : " If 
you wish to know what Christ did for His apostles at 
the Last Supper, you can be easily informed. He pros- 
trated Himself before them, washed and, according to a 
pious tradition, kissed their feet. But if you inquire 
still further and ask to know what was done for them 
not merely at the Last Supper, but from the very begin- 
ning, the answer will be quite another. It will lead us 
back to the very hour of creation. This Divine Lord 
created them out of nothing ; when they were incapable 
of loving God, He infused that divine love into their 
hearts ; nor did He make them after the image of any 
created thing, but according to His own image and like- 
ness, imprinting on their souls, as it were, an image of 
the Most Holy Triniry by gifting them with will, mem- 
ory, and understanding. He gave them the great gift of 
free will ; He gave them angels for their guardians and 
constant companions ; lie created this world for their 
benefit ; He prescribed a law for them which, if faith- 
fully observed, would guide them to eternal life ; He 
granted them the pardon of their sins; when He became 
man He taught them the knowledge of the way to heav- 
en ; He healed the sick among them ; He raised their 
dead to life ; in a word, He granted them all the graces 
and blessings of which they stood* in need. Might not 
Jesus well ask His disciples, ' Know you what I have 
done to you \ ' " 



JESUS' WORDS AFTER THE WASHING OF FEET. 65 

]STow, all the general benefits which Jesus Christ con- 
ferred on His apostles have been likewise given to each 
of us. He created this visible wonderful world for us ; 
He created us out of nothing ; He loved us from eternity ; 
He created us to His own image and likeness ; He en- 
dowed us with will, memory, and understanding; He 
destined us for heaven ; He instituted seven Sacraments 
for our sanctification ; in short, He accomplished the 
grand work of human redemption for us. 

How have we corresponded to these immense benefits % 
What have we done in return ? Alas ! we have repaid 
our Divine Lord with the basest ingratitude. Let us, 
therefore, endeavor to change our life, firmly resolving 
to become true followers of Jesus. To attain this end 
let us often reflect on the benefits which He has bestowed 
on us from the hour of our creation to this very moment ; 
we shall then be able to understand how truly worthy 
Jesus is of all our love and gratitude. 

Second Point. 

The example of our Holy Redeemer should not only 
be admired, but it should also be imitated. " If then I, 
being your Lord and Master, have washed your feet, you 
also ought to wash one another's feet." This was equiv- 
alent to saying, Let man do what God did; let the ser- 
vant imitate the example of his master. No human 
dignity should refuse to do what the Master of heaven 
and earth did; what the Master practised should be prac- 
tised by the servant, and no Christian should disdain to 
do what Christ Jesus did. 

St. Augustine explaining the following passage of the 
Gospel, " Learn of Me, because I am meek and humble 
5 



bb MEDITATIONS ON THE SUFFERINGS OF CHRIST. 

of heart, and you shall find rest to jour souls," para- 
phrases it thus : " Learn of Me not to build the world, 
not to create visible and invisible things, not to work 
miracles, not to raise the dead to life ; but learn to be 
meek and humble of heart." 

We are not required to go into strange countries in 
order to perform works of charity ; we are not required 
to expose our lives to enlighten those " who sit in dark- 
ness and in the shadow Of death ;" we are not required 
to undertake any long and dangerous journey, nor to 
enter the cloister ; no, our Merciful Lord does not exact 
so much from us. To do those things requires graces 
from heaven which are not granted to all, but to a few 
only. All that is required of the faithful at large is the 
observance of the divine law, and perfect submission to 
Him whose yoke is sweet and whose burden is light. 
We are commanded to bear with patience our own and 
our neighbor's infirmities, to abstain from those things 
which are forbidden by the commandments of God and 
of the Church, and to be faithful Christians not only in 
name but also in d.ced. 

It is not necessary to perform heroic actions in order 
to be Christians ; nor is it necessary to go to distant 
countries to practise Christian virtues. They may be 
practised everywhere. We are surrounded on all sides 
by powerful enemies ; we are especially assailed by our 
common enemies, the world, the flesh, and the devil ; 
therefore, we shall always have occasions to practise the 
virtues of patience and resignation. We can also fre- 
quently exercise ourselves in the virtue of charity by 
assisting our fellow-creatures, by advising them, and 
praying for them. Opportunities are never wanting to 
practise voluntary mortifications in order to atone for 



JESUS' WORDS AFTER THE WASHING OF FEET. 67 

our faults. Finally, we should ever show ourselves true 
followers of Christ by a close and constant imitation of 
His virtues, especially those of meekness and humility. 

Let us imagine ourselves present at the mysterious 
Washing of Feet, and consider as addressed to us those 
memorable words of Jesus Christ : " For I have given 
you an example, that as I have done to you, so you do 
also." If Jesus so humbled Himself as to wash the feet 
of His disciples, we ought to humble ourselves as far, at 
least, as to forgive our enemies : since Jesus did all for us, 
we ought to do something for Him. Finally, let us im- 
press deeply on our minds those words of our Lord, " I 
have given you an example, that as I have done to you, 
so you do also." Could a king ask less of his subjects ? 
Could a captain ask less of his soldiers % Could a master 
ask less of his servants % And this is all that Jesus asks 
of us — to follow His example. "If you know these 
things, you shall be blessed if you do them" (St. John 
xiii. 17). 



MEDITATIONS ON THE SUFFERINGS OF CHRIST. 



CONSIDERATION XI. 
Jesus Christ predicts the Perfidy of Judas. 

" And whilst they were eating, He said : Amen I say to you, 
that one of you is about to betray Me. And they being very 
much troubled, began every one to say : Is it I, Lord ? " — St. Matt. 
xxvi. 21, 22. 

First Point. 

r I ^HE Divine Master had scarcely ended His sublime 
-■- discourse on humility and fraternal charity, when 
His countenance underwent a sudden change ; a change 
which was not caused by fear, but by a feeling of intense 
anguish. Turning to His apostles, He said, " Amen I 
say to yon, that one of you is about to betray Me." And 
appropriating to Himself the words of the Royal Psalm- 
ist, He may, perhaps, have addded : " If an enemy of 
mine had cursed Me, I could have borne it in peace. 
But that a disciple of Mine, one whom I have chosen as 
a coadjutor in the work of the salvation of mankind ; one 
who has always lived in harmony with Me, and has so 
often heard from My lips the words of eternal life ; one 
who has often broken bread with Me at My table, and 
witnessed so many of My miracles ; one who has received 
from Me power to perform even greater wonders than I 
have wrought, and who has been benefited by Me in 
every way — that this ingrate should now have the in- 
famous courage to conspire against Me, and is now await- 
ing a favorable opportunity to betray Me into the hands 



JESUS PREDICTS THE PERFIDY OF JUDAS. 69 

of My bitter enemies — this, this it is that afflicts Me 
most profoundly." Some expositors of the sacred text 
maintain that when Jesus had spoken thus He turned 
His eyes upon Judas to observe whether His divine 
words had gone home to the traitor's heart, and whether 
the poor wretch would show any sign of sorrow and re- 
pentance. Our loving Saviour still wished to encourage 
Jul as to have confidence in the infinite mercy of God, 
and not to fear the wrathful effects of His terrible justice. 
Seeing, however, that the unfaithful disciple still remained 
obdurate, and that he was deaf to all those tender appeals 
and insensible to the stings of his guilty conscience, 
Jesus passed from words of gentle rebuke to the utter- 
ance of this awful menace : " Woe to that man by whom 
the Son of man shall be betrayed ! It were better for him 
if that man had not been born." These terrible words 
were designed not only to reproach Judas with the 
enormity of his crime, but also to arouse in him a salu- 
tary fear of eternal torments, in order that he might, 
perhaps, be led to repentance. Upon hearing this awful 
menace of Jesus Christ the apostles were filled with a 
great fear. But, excepting Judas, each had the testimony 
of a good conscience and persisted in considering as not 
addressed to himself the words which the Master had 
ottered. Jesus had spoken too plainly to be misunder- 
stood ; all the disciples knew at once that a traitor was in 
their midst. They became very sad, and, wishing to be 
exonerated from suspicion, they began one after another 
to question the Master, saying, "Is it I, Lord?" The 
eleven faithful apostles were conscious of their innocence; 
but they had learned from the teachings of Christ that, on 
account of the frailty of human nature, man is fickle and 
, moved from even his firmest resolutions. Hence 



70 MEDITATIONS ON THE SUFFERINGS OF CHRIST. 

they deeply distrusted their own strength and questioned, 
" Is it I, Lord ? " They feared lest they might perpetrate 
a crime of which they had never even thought. 

This conduct of our Lord towards Judas furnishes us 
with a grand and sublime example of the solicitude of 
Jesus for the conversion of sinners. How many inspira- 
tions and graces, how many examples and admonitions, 
does He not give us to induce us to return to Him ! A 
mother has not so much anxiety for her darling child 
who lies dangerously ill, as God has for the salvation of 
o'ur souls. If, then, we do not correspond to this most 
tender and loving solicitude, we shall be alone to blame 
for our eternal perdition. 

Second Point. 

Our Holy Redeemer saw that neither His secret ad- 
monitions nor His public menaces made any impression 
on the mind of Judas; and knowing that the other 
apostles were suffering for the evil intentions of that one 
man, He resumed His usual kindly manner, and, in order 
to relieve their anxiety, thus addressed them : " My dear 
children, let not what I have said sadden your hearts, for 
I did not speak of all. I know those whom I have 
elected to the apostolate, and I see in your hearts the 
horror which you entertain for the terrible crime of My 
betrayal. I know that eleven of My disciples are 
faithful, and that there is only one traitor among us. I 
foresaw, indeed, the ingratitude and perfidy of this 
apostate disciple from all eternity. I foresaw, also, that 
his divine call to the apostolate, together with all the num- 
berless graces and favors which he was destined to re- 
ceive, would not cause his conversion : yet I did not ex- 



JESUS PREDICTS THE PERFIDY OF JUDAS. 71 

elude him, but I called him to follow Me, in order that 
the prophecies concerning Me might be accomplished." 
Thus Jesus spoke — so expositors of the Sacred Scriptures 
teach — for the purpose of calming the minds of His 
dearly beloved disciples, and also of affording the Iscariot 
another opportunity to reflect and repent. 

It is to be noticed that Jesus had so far never once 
mentioned the name of His betrayer. Our Lord observed 
this divinely noble reticence in order to save the reputa- 
tion which Judas enjoyed among his colleagues and be- 
fore the public. But the wretch obstinately persisted in 
his iniquity, remaining insensible to the loving rebukes 
as well as to the terrible menaces of Jesus. 

Father Euthemius, commenting on the terrible obsti- 
nacy of Judas Iscariot, takes occasion to reproach those 
sinners who, to extenuate their offences, attempt to main- 
tain that they are driven into sin by the natural perver- 
sity of human nature, and that they are actually pre- 
destined to offend God. Such men exonerate Judas from 
all sin, because, say they, it had been decreed from all 
eternity that he was to be guilty of this heinous treach- 
ery to his Divine Master. "We answer: The foreknowl- 
edge which God had of Judas' sin did not cause its com- 
mission. Judas, without any compulsion, but by an abuse 
of his free will, was, in time, to perpetrate the sin, and 
the omniscient God foreknew it from all eternity. Thus, 
though in the order of time Judas' sin was posterior to 
God's foreknowledge of it, in the order of reason it was 
anterior; or, in other words, God's foreknowledge of 
Judas' crime was not the cause of its commission, but 
the commission of the crime was the cause of God's fore- 
knowledge of it. We must bear in mind that God does 
not compel any one to be good or bad. He has given 



72 MEDITATIONS ON THE SUFFERINGS OF CHRIST. 

each of us a free will, and during our life He bestows on 
us numberless graces to enable us to use our will rightly 
and attain salvation. Those, therefore, who abuse this 
gift of free will, as Judas did, become doubly guilty : 
first, by yielding to their evil inclinations ; secondly, by 
not corresponding to the graces which God gives them. 

Let us pause for a moment to consider what divine 
favors had been bestowed on Judas. First, he was called 
to the apostolate that he might be convinced of the divin- 
ity of Jesus Christ and have less temptation to betray 
Him. Secondly, he was appointed treasurer of the alms 
received for the support of our Lord and the apostles, 
that, being so distinguished, he might have stronger 
motives fur remaining faithful to his Divine Master. 
Thirdly, he was given the power of performing miracles, 
in order that, considering his great and sublime dignity, 
he might not be led to commit so detestable a crime as 
treachery. Fourthly, he was given more graces than any 
other of the apostles, so that he might have more strength to 
resist his depraved inclinations. To conclude, let us reflect 
that God wishes all men to be saved, and gives them graces 
sufficient to work out their salvation. He has given us 
free will that we may have merit for our good works. If 
we abuse our free will, the fault is ours. Let us, then, 
ask of God grace to enable us to use our free will rightly, 
and to persevere unto the end in the performance of good 
works, never for a moment allowing ourselves to despair 
of our salvation, but confidently relying on His mercy 
and placing all our hopes in the merits of Christ's passion 
and death. 



JESUS' EFFOETS TO CONVERT JUDAS. 73 



CONSIDERATION XII. 

Our Divine Redeemer tries by every Means to 
convert Judas. 

" And Judas that betrayed Him, answering said: Is it I, Kabbi ? 
He saitb to him : Thou hast said it. " — St. Matt. xxvi. 25. 



First Point. 

THE perfidious Judas heard the other apostles ques- 
tioning their Master as to who among them was the 
traitor, and, for fear of being discovered by his colleagues, 
he also asked, " Is it I, Eabbi ?" 

Commenting on this effrontery of Judas, an impas- 
sioned author thus apostrophizes him and inveighs against 
him: "O wretch! O thief! O hypocrite ! O traitor! O 
monster of iniquity ! "What ? Tou have already been 
before the chief priests and ancients of the people ; of 
your own free will you have offered to deliver your Di- 
vine Master into the hands of His enemies ! You have 
already received the thirty pieces of silver, and for the 
past two days you have been seeking an opportunity to 
execute your diabolical plot ! You are endeavoring, even 
now, to leave the supper-room to inform His enemies that 
He may now be easily arrested, — and yet you dare to ask 
Him, ' Is it I, Eabbi? ' You know that He is the Man- 
God who can penetrate the inmost secrets of our hearts, 
and you have the audacity to ask Him, 'Is it I, Eabbi V 
You have this very moment heard Him say with all cer- 



74 MEDITATIONS ON THE SUFFERINGS OF CHRIST. 

tainty that one of His apostles is about to betray Him, 
and you know too well that He forbore mentioning your 
name because, in His divine charity, He did not wish to 
disgrace you before your colleagues and the public. You 
perceive clearly that He knows your infamous project, — 
and yet you ask, ' Is it I, Eabbi ? ' O unheard-of inso- 
lence ! O unparalleled temerity ! But hearken, O Judas ! 
to the answer which your Divine Master, though shame- 
fully betrayed by you, deigns to give; and from that 
answer, Judas, learn whether Jesus deserves to be so in- 
sultingly treated." 

Our Divine Lord understood the full import of the 
Iscariot's question, all its insolence and temerity ; but as 
He desired the conversion of the traitor, He patiently 
bore the effrontery and refrained from revealing his name. 
Considering, however, that further silence might render 
the fallen disciple more audacious, and impress him with 
the idea that his secret thoughts were unknown — an idea 
which would cause him to hurry on to the consummation 
of his crime — Jesus made known to Judas that He was 
aware of all by answering, " Thou hast said it," which 
was equivalent to saying, "Yes; you are the very one 
that has determined to betray Me, to sell Me to My bitter 
enemies." 

The interpreters of Holy Scripture are of the opinion 
that Jesus spoke these words to Judas in secret. The 
Evangelist does not say whether the answer given by 
Jesus was heard by the other apostles. St. Peter, who 
had a great desire to know who the traitor was, requested 
St. John, the beloved disciple, to question the Master. 
John, therefore, who was " leaning on the breast of Jesus, 
saith to Him : Lord, who is it ? Jesus answered : He it is 
to whom I shall reach bread dipped. And when He had 



JESUS' EFFORTS TO CONVERT JUDAS. 75 

dipped the bread, He gave it to Judas Iscariot, the son of 
Simon. And after the morsel, Satan entered into him. 
And Jesus said to him : That which thou dost, do quickly. 
Now no man at the table knew to what purpose He said 
this unto him" (St. John xiii. 25-28). It is evident, 
therefore, that the apostles, John only excepted, knew 
nothing of Judas' treason. But not even this sublimely 
charitable reticence of Christ was sufficient to soften the 
traitor's heart. 

We should pause here and meditate on the great ten- 
derness which Jesus manifested towards His faithless 
apostle, and also on the obduracy shown by the latter. 
The one should encourage, the other affright us. Let 
us, therefore, resolve to govern our conduct by these two 
principles, — confidence in God, diffidence in self. Ob- 
serving these, we shall infallibly arrive at the kingdom of 
God. 

Second Point. 

Our Holy Eedeemer whispered only two words into 
the ear of His faithless disciple, " Tu dixiMi" — '"Thou 
hast said it." But how many words of holy inspiration, 
how many gentle words of invitation to repentance, did 
He not secretly address to the heart of the traitor? The 
spoken words of Jesus can be found in the holy Gospel ; 
and some knowledge of the import of His secret addresses 
may be obtained from the Fathers of the Church, and 
from devout contemplators on the sufferings of Jesus. 
These holy writers ascribe to our Saviour words of most 
tender and loving appeal, such as only a consideration of 
the immensity of God's love can render credible. Thus 
does one writer make Jesus speak : 

" My beloved disciple, tell Me what crime have I com- 



76 MEDITATIONS ON THE SUFFERINGS OF CHRIST. 

mitted which causes you to deliver Me into the hands of 
My bitter enemies % What have I done to you, or in 
what have I displeased you ? I have chosen you in pref- 
erence to many others to be one of My apostles; I have 
conferred on you the power of working miracles ; I have 
distinguished you among the twelve by appointing you 
treasurer and administrator of the alms given us by the 
faithful for our support and the needs of the poor ; I have 
never asked you to render an account of your administra- 
tion of the affairs of that office, for I have always placed 
confidence in you-and now do you betray Me in return 
for all these benefits? O Judas! Judas, My beloved 
disciple, pause and consider whether I deserve to be 
treated so ungratefully. Remember, Judas, that I have 
loved you well and tenderly; and I still love you with all 
My heart. I ask nothing of you but that you love Me in 
return. I desire only your eternal salvation. For your 
salvation I came down from heaven and became man, and 
for yon I am soon to shed the last drop of My blood. I 
wish you to share in the traits of My bitter passion. I 
am still your dear Master, though you have forgotten to 
be My disciple. Be converted, and I promise that I will 
f oro-et all. I will remember nothing but your docility to 
My call. Tour fault thall meet with My tenderest com- 
passion. Remember that I do not wish the death of the 
sinner, but that he be converted and live. 

" O Judas ! Judas, it is not your Judge that now speaks 
to you, but your Redeemer; it is not the God of ven- 
geance, but the Father of Mercies who calls you. Hearken 
to His loving voice ; withdraw from the path of iniquity 
upon which you have entered, and in which, if you con- 
tinue, you must surely perish. Do not turn a deaf ear 
to My merciful call. Do not harden your heart, nor de- 



JESUS' EFFORTS TO CONVERT JUDAS. 77 

spi.se My holy grace. Quit your blind rage, and return 
to the path of virtue : it is divine clemency itself that 
calls you, that knocks at the door of your heart, to invite 
you to a new life." 

Leo L, surnamed the Great, penetrated by a deep sense 
of the goodness manifested by our Divine Lord in His 
relations with Judas, thus apostrophizes the traitor, and 
explains at the same time the reason of his obduracy : 
" Why, unhappy Judas, do you not avail yourself of the 
goodness of your merciful Kedeemer? Why do you 
not give, at least, a sign of interior repentance ? Alas ! 
the reason is only too plain," continues St. Leo ; " Judas, 
who had ever been tardy in corresponding to divine grace, 
has now become deaf and dumb to the heavenly call. It 
is not the first time that Jesus speaks to his heart : Judas 
has habitually rejected divine grace, and now he is insen- 
sible to the mercies of heaven." 

For strong reasons, then, have the holy Fathers of the 
Church occupied themselves in showing the great solici- 
tude of our Saviour for the conversion of Judas. Their 
purpose was to encourage sinners to rely on the mercy of 
God, and never despair, no matter how grievous or nu- 
merous their sins might be ; for if the divine mercy was 
great towards Judas, it is equally great towards us. 

Encouraged, therefore, by the infinite goodness of our 
most amiable Redeemer, let us prostrate ourselves at His 
feet ; and, detesting all our past sins from the bottom of 
our hearts, let us make a firm resolution nevermore to 
offend Him. 



78 MEDITATIONS ON THE SUFFERINGS OF CHRIST. 



CONSIDERATION XIII. 

Jesus institutes the Most August Sacrament of 
the Holy Eucharist. 

"Jesus knowing that His hour was come that He should pass 
out of this world to the Father: having loved His own who were 
in the world, He loved them unto the end."— 8t. John xiii. 1. 

First Point. 

ST. JOHN the Evangelist tells ns that Jesus, knowing 
that the hour for His departure from this world was 
at hand, resolved that the same tender, ceaseless love 
which He had always shown towards His disciples during 
His missionary career should shine out most resplen- 
dency in the last sad parting hour. The Eternal Father 
had subjected all things to the will of His beloved Son. 
Jesus, therefore, lifting up His eyes to heaven, thanked 
His Eternal Father for having conferred this unlimited 
power on Him even as man. Then taking bread, He 
blessed, broke, and gave it to His disciples, saying : " Take 
ye, and eat : this is My body." Then " taking the chal- 
ice, He gave thanks, and gave to them, saying : Drink ye 
all of this. For this is My blood of the New Testament 
which shall be shed for many unto the remission of sins." 
Such were the words of our Divine Redeemer ; words 
few and brief, but, as we know them in the Church of 
God, they are full of the deepest meaning. Interpreted 
in the light of Catholic doctrine, these words of Jesus 



THE SACRAMENT OP THE HOLY EUCHARIST. 79 

may thus be paraphrased : " I have instituted this august 
Sacrament, not only for the Church's spiritual benefit, 
but also for your spiritual comfort ; therefore, I grant 
you power to renew it every day. You have seen what 
I did, — do ye also the same. I will descend from heaven 
whenever you utter the words of consecration. I will 
place myself at your disposal, that you may dispense Me 
to the faithful as spiritual food, and that you may keep 
Me on your altars and have recourse to Me in your spirit- 
ual and temporal needs. I will remain with you in this 
most venerable Sacrament until the consummation of the 
world, to comfort and strengthen you in the faith, and to 
help you to walk on courageously and perseveringly in 
the rough road of the cross. I give you one command- 
ment, however : whenever you shall make this august 
Sacrament, you shall do so in commemoration of Me. I 
require only this of you, and I require it as an attesta- 
tion of your gratitude for the benefits conferred on you 
in this holy Sacrament." 

Could our Lord do more for our spiritual interests, and 
ask less from us in return ? Before passing to a further 
consideration of this great act of our Saviour's love, let 
us try to enter into the sentiments which must have 
animated Him on this solemn occasion. Let us imagine 
that we see Him, His divine countenance all radiant, and 
that we hear issuing from His sacred lips this touching 
address : " My beloved disciples, I am at the end of My 
days, but I have not yet exhausted the treasures of My 
love and mercy. I can give no greater proof of My love 
than to die for the salvation of mankind: that proof I 
will to-morrow give you by sacrificing Myself to the 
Eternal Father to satisfy His justice. Learn, then, how 
great is My love for men, and how dear to Me is their 



80 MEDITATIONS ON" THE SUFFERINGS OF CHRIST. 

eternal salvation. But My charity does not stop here: 
it shall overleap the boundaries of death. Yes, on the 
very eve of My crucifixion, I have found a means which 
shall enable Me to remain among men even to the con- 
summation of the world. In this holy Sacrament I shall 
dwell in their midst to hear their prayers, to console them 
in their sorrows, and to succor them in the trials and 
difficulties of their daily life. You, therefore, whom I 
have chosen for My disciples, announce to all men how 
much I have loved them ; encourage them to have con- 
fidence in the merits of My passion ; encourage them to 
have recourse to Me in their necessities, and I will hear 
and grant their petitions. These are the sentiments which 
fill my heart in these closing hours of My mortal life. 
But there is one thing which I demand of you in particu- 
lar, and of all men in general, in return for My great 
love, and it is this : that you constantly remember how 
much I have suffered for you. If you will but keep this 
faithful remembrance of My sufferings, I shall consider 
My love sufficiently rewarded. Alas ! I foresee that from 
the greater number of Christians I shall not receive even 
this poor boon of grateful remembrance. Nevertheless, 
I will never cease to love and benefit them ; I will never 
ignore their tears nor reject their repentance. Sinners 
shall always find Me present on their altars, ready to 
embrace them and grant their petitions. I came down 
from heaven to bring, not the just, but sinners, to repent- 
ance. For the sake of sinners I became man; for their 
sake I have led a life of suffering and anguish ; for their 
sake I am going to die to-morrow on the cross, and for 
their sake I wish to remain on earth after My death." 

These expressions are far too weak to convey any ade- 
quate idea of the love which Jesus Christ manifested for 



THE SACRAMENT OF THE HOLY EUCHARIST. 81 

us in the institution of the Blessed Sacrament. But let 
us endeavor to make up for the feebleness of our expres- 
sions by the fervor and constancy of our devotion to Jesus 
ever present on our altars. 

Second Point. 

No holy Father, no expositor of Holy Scripture, no 
devout author, can find words to express adequately the 
grandeur, the sublimity of this most august Sacrament. 
The angels of heaven cover their faces in reverence be- 
fore it, and humble themselves to the very ground to 
worship a mystery so great, so sublime. No one could 
have imagined the possibility of so great a mystery, had 
not Jesus Christ Himself revealed it. There are, there- 
fore, no words to express the excellence of this Sacra- 
ment. Only a profound meditation can give us an idea 
of it — an idea so faint, however, as to be as far from the 
truth as the finite is from the infinite, the creature from 
the creator. Nevertheless, though there are not words 
adequate to express what should be our piety and zeal in 
view of the great benefits conferred on us in the Blessed 
Sacrament, yet we should avail ourselves of the best 
means at our disposal to awaken in our hearts a proper 
appreciation of its blessings. To this end, therefore, let 
us recall the words of the holy Fathers on the subject of 
the Blessed En diarist. 

St. Augustine says that God, all omnipotent as He is, 
is Dot able to bestow on us any greater favor, and that in 
the institution of this Sacrament He exhausted all the 
treasures of His omnipotence. For what more had God 
to give after He had given Himself? "What greater gift 
than the gift of Himself 'I 
6 



82 MEDITATIONS ON THE SUFFERINGS OF CHRIST. 

" O admirable mystery !" exclaims Venerable John 
Tauler, " O sublime Sacrament ! O ineffable love ! O un- 
heard-of generosity ! The Donor is Himself the gift ; the 
servant nourishes himself with the person of his Master ; 
the domestic sits at the table of the King of Glory and 
partakes of His royal flesh ; man eats of the bread of 
angels ; the Eternal Father divides among His servants 
the body of His only-begotten Son, and gives them that 
Son's most precious blood to drink ! But what intellect 
shall ever comprehend the profound mysteries of this 
admirable Sacrament?" 

" O wonderful supper," says St. Bonaventure, " at 
which so many wondrous things were wrought by the 
hand of Omnipotence! This was the last supper, O my 
most amiable Jesus, that Thou wast to eat with Thy 
apostles, and Thou wast soon to depart from this world. 
At this last supper Thy charity inspired Thee to work 
many admirable wonders. But the greatest of all was 
the institution of the august Sacrament of the Altar, by 
which Thou hast left us forever a sweet and precious re- 
minder of Thy passion and death." 

" 2so Sacrament," says the Angelic Doctor St. Thomas, 
" is more salutary than this. By it sins are blotted out, 
virtues are increased, and the soul is enriched with an 
abundance of all spiritual graces. While in the other 
sacraments only grace is received, in the Eucharist the 
very Author of grace is received ; and when God becomes 
one with me, what more have I to desire?" 

The fruit of this consideration should be a firm resolu- 
tion to approach the Eueharistic table frequently with the 
greatest respect and most profound veneration, acknowl- 
edging ourselves unworthy of this great and sublime 
Sacrament, but still reposing all our confidence in the 



THE SACRAMENT OF THE HOLY EUCHARIST. 83 

merits of Jesus Christ. Let us, therefore, prostrate our- 
selves at the feet of Jesus, and say to Him more with the 
heart than with the lips : " What is man that Thou art 
mindful of him % or the son of man that Thou visitest 
him ? Thou hast made him a little less than the Angels ; 
Thou hast crowned him with glory and honor: and 
hast set him over the works of Thy hands. Thou hast 
subjected all things under his feet, all sheep and oxen ; 
moreover the beasts also of the field. The birds of 
the air, and the fishes of the sea, that pass through the 
paths of the sea. O Lord, our Lord, how admirable is 
Thy name in all the earth !" But all that Thou hadst 
done did not satisfy Thy love ; for man Thou didst still 
do more. For him Thou didst take a human soul and 
body in the pure womb of the Blessed Virgin Mary ; for 
him Thou didst subject Thyself to all the pains of in- 
fancy; for him Thou didst lead a life of hardship, priva- 
tion, and persecution ; finally, for him Thou didst shed 
the last drop of Thy most precious blood on the cross, — 
and what more could remain for Thee to do? It seems 
that all the treasures of Thy love should have been ex- 
hausted on Mount Calvary. But no; before ascending 
the sacred wood of the cross Thou didst consider that 
Thou wast about to immolate only Thy body for the 
expiation of our sins, and that Thy soul and divinity still 
remained to Thee. Thou didst wish to bestow these 
also upon us, and therefore Thou didst institute the most 
august Sacrament of the Eucharist. Great God! Quid 
est homo quia magnijicas eum? 



84 MEDITATIONS ON THE SUFFERINGS OF CHRIST. 



w ] 



CONSIDERATION XIV. 

Sermon of Jesus Christ after the Institution of 
the Blessed Sacrament. 

"Little children, yet a little while I am with you."— St. John 
xiii. 33. 

First Point. 

"HEN Judas Iscariot had gone out of the supper- 
room, Jesus Christ, who knew well where the 
unhappy apostle was to betake himself, heaved a deep 
sigh and exclaimed, "Now is the Son of man glorified, 
and God is glorified in Him." This glory, however, was 
to Jesus a source of anguish, because it had come to Him 
through the loss of a beloved disciple for whose conver- 
sion He had exhausted, as it were, all the treasures of 
His mercy. Then Jesus turned towards the eleven ; and 
as a tender friend when setting out on a long journey af- 
fectionately bids farewell to his clear ones, or as a dying 
father gathers his beloved children around his bed to 
convey to them his last wishes, so does the Merciful 
Redeemer who, foreseeing the hour of His approaching 
sacrifice, thus addresses His apostles : " ' Little children, 
yet a little while I am with you.' But the hour of My 
departure is at hand, and I go where you cannot come 
at present. As it is the parting hour, hear My last 
paternal injunctions, and impress them on your hearts, for 
they are given by the most tender of Fathers in the last 



JESUS' SERMON AFTER THE LAST SUPPER. 85 

moments of His mortal life." Then Jesus said : " The 
first and most important command which I give you is 
that of charity. Dear children, love one another with 
that sincere affection with which I have loved you. By 
this love the world shall know that you are My disciples. 
This love shall be the mark of My true followers, the 
character by which the children of the Gospel shall be 
distinguished from the children of the world. 

" Let not your hearts be troubled as you hear that I am 
about to leave you, because though where I go you can- 
not come at present, still the time will come when you 
also shall follow Me. I go before you to prepare you a 
place, and when it shall have been prepared I will come 
again and take you with Me. The words which I speak 
to you are not Mine, but they are suggested to Me by 
My Father. 

" If you do not believe in Me, believe in My works ; be- 
lieve in the miracles which you have seen wrought by My 
hands — miracles of such a nature that they surpass all 
human power. As to those who will believe in Me, they, 
too, shall perform miracles, and even greater ones than I 
have performed, if they only ask the power from My 
Heavenly Father in My name. For whatever you ask 
the Father in My name, it shall be granted unto yon, 
that the Father may be glorified in His Son. If then it 
is true that you love Me, keep My commandments ; and 
I will ask the Father, and He will send you the Paraclete, 
who shall remain with you forever. The Paraclete shall 
be the Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive, 
because it neither sees nor knows Him ; but you shall 
receive and recognize Him, because He shall abide with 
you and within you. Be, therefore, of good heart ; for 
though I am going away, yet I will not leave you 



86 MEDITATIONS ON THE SUFFERINGS OF CHRIST. 

orphans. The Holy Spirit who shall come after Me shall 
be a father to you. He shall explain to you all these 
great mysteries which you do not at present understand, 
and He will give you proofs of all the doctrines which I 
have preached to you. Peace I leave with you, My peace 
I give unto you : not as the world giveth, do I give unto 
you. Let not your heart be troubled, nor let it be afraid. 
You have heard that I said to you : ' I go away, and I 
come unto yon. If you loved Me, you would, indeed, be 
glad, because I go to the Father : for the Father is greater 
than I. And now I have told you before it came to pass : 
that when it shall come to pass you may believe.' " 

Such was the sublime and ever-memorable discourse 
pronounced by our Divine Redeemer after the Last Sup- 
per ; a discourse from which we should draw these three 
great lessons : First, that it is a strict duty incumbent 
upon us all to observe the great precept of charity, if we 
would be recognized as true followers of Jesus Christ. 
Second, that the observance of the commandments is of 
the utmost importance, if we wish to enter the kingdom 
of heaven. Third, that prayer is necessary in order to 
obtain from the Eternal Father grace to work out our 
salvation. 

Second Point. 

During the delivery of His affectionate farewell to His 
disciples, our Lord was frequently interrupted by them. 
Upon hearing the Master say, " Whither I go thou canst 
not follow Me now, but thou shalt follow hereafter," 
Peter, with a fervor quite peculiar to himself, exclaimed, 
" Why cannot I follow Thee now % I will lay down My 
life for thee." Jesus answered : " Wilt thou lay down 
thy life for Me ? Amen, amen I say to thee, the cock 



JESUS' SERMON AFTER THE LAST SUPPER. 87 

shall not crow till thou deny Me thrice." St. Thomas, 
also, hearing Jesus say, " And whither I go you know, 
and the way you know," replied at once, " Lord, we know 
not whither Thou goest ; and how can we know the way ?" 
Jesus made answer thus : "lam the way, the truth, and 
the life. ~No man cometh to the Father but by Me." 
" Lord, show us the Father and it shall be enough for 
us," immediately rejoined St. Philip, to whom Jesus re- 
p]ied, " Philip, he that seeth Me seeth the Father also." 

From these questions of the apostles, as well as from 
the replies of our Divine Lord, we are enabled to perceive 
that before the descent of the Holy Ghost the apostles 
were very ignorant of the truths of faith. Whence we 
may infer that had we not the light of the same Holy 
Spirit to guide us to a knowledge of God and His holy 
mysteries, we should now be in a like ignorance of them. 
We ought also to learn that we shall go, sooner or later, 
where our Lord has gone, provided we keep His com- 
mandments. But if we hear not the divine word and 
follow the maxims of the world, the Lord will not love 
us, nor reveal Himself to us, nor lead us to the kingdom 
of His Eternal Father. 

It should be observed here that the great promises of 
our Divine Redeemer, far from making the apostles more 
fervent in the observance of the sublime maxims which 
He constantly taught during the three years of His public 
life, only served to inflame their ambition. For, hearing 
the Divine Master speak of His kingdom and future glory, 
and still believing that Jesus was to reign on earth, they 
ii to dispute among themselves as to which of them 
^liould hold the first place in Christ's kingdom. O miser- 
able human nature ! how frail art thou ? Only a few mo- 
ments before the apostles had seen Jesus in an humble pos- 



88 MEDITATIONS ON" THE SUFE'EEINGS OF CHRIST. 

ture washing their feet ; they had jnst received the Holy Eu- 
charist ; they had just been ordained priests, even the first 
bishops of the Xew Law ; they had just heard from the lips 
of Jesus words of eternal life ; they had just been assured 
by Him that His last hour was at hand, and that His 
enemies were soon to crucify Him : and instead of gather- 
ing around their Divine Master to console Him, they 
began to dispute among themselves. And their dispute, 
after all the lessons of humility given at the Last Supper, 
was about what ? " There was a strife among them," the 
Scripture tells us, " which of them should seem to be the 
greater." 

But let us hear how our Lord ended the dispute. " The 
kings of the gentiles," said Christ, " lord it over them ; 
and they that have power over them are called benefi- 
cent. But you not so : but he that is the greater among 
you, let him become as the younger ; and he that is the 
leader, as he that serveth. For which is greater, he that 
sitteth at table or he that serveth ? Is it not he that 
sitteth at table ? But I am in the midst of you, as he that 
serveth." Those words of Jesus were equivalent to 
these : " I have humbled Myself so far as to assume 
human nature ; I have even washed your feet ; I have 
practised mortifications and humiliations of every kind ; 
and if you would be My disciples, you should certainly 
imitate My example." 

Thus Jesus ended His sublime lesson on humility, the 
foundation of all virtues. Let us, therefore, resolve to 
practise this great virtue in imitation of our Divine Lord, 
that we may daily become more pleasing in His sight. 



JESUS CHRIST LEAVES THE SUPPER-ROOM. 89 



CONSIDEKATION XV. 
Jesus Christ leaves the Supper-room. 

" And a hymn being said, they went out unto Mount Olivet." 

St. Matthew xxvi. 80. 

First Point. 

r I ^HE darkness of night had already enveloped the 
-*- earth, and Judas had gone to the chief priests and 
ancients of the people to instruct them how they might 
capture his Divine Master. Far from wishing to avoid 
death, Jesus desired rather to hasten the hour of its ap- 
proach, and, arising from the table, He resolved to leave 
the supper-room, and also the city, to prepare Himself in 
some solitary place for the great sacrifice of Calvary. 

He, therefore, thanked the owner of the house for the 
courteous hospitality which had been tendered to Him- 
self and His disciples, and, having sung a hymn of 
thanksgiving to the Eternal Father, Jesus, accompanied 
by the eleven, departed from the city. They passed out 
through the gate of Mount Sion, and descending the hill, 
proceeded to Mount Olivet. On the si^e of this mount 
was the Garden of Gethsemani, into which Jesus, when 
visiting Jerusalem, was accustomed to retire frequently 
to pray. To this garden He now repaired : " And a hymn 
being said, they went out unto Mount Olivet." 

The reason why our Lord left the supper-room was, 
perhaps, this: He was desirous of saving His charitable 
host from the molestations to which the soldiery would 
certainly subject that person whom they should find en- 



90 MEDITATIONS ON THE SUFFERINGS OF CHRIST. 

tertaining the very one whose capture they desired to 
effect. As to the Redeemer's reason for departing from 
Jerusalem, Theophylactus tells us that it was to prevent 
a tumult which would certainly arise among the people 
should they be permitted to witness the infamous method 
adopted to accomplish our Lord's capture. Several rea- 
sons are assigned for His repairing to Mount Olivet, and 
to that very spot where lay the Garden of Gethsemani. 
St. Jerome says that as Jesus was to ascend into heaven 
from the summit of this mountain, so He wished to watch, 
pray, and be captured on this mountain ; thus clearly in- 
timating that prayers, vigils, and humiliations are so many 
rungs of the mystic ladder of perfection, by which alone 
man can hope to ascend above the stars and reach his 
heavenly home. Venerable Bede tells us that the garden 
was the place where Jesus frequently retired at night to 
pray ; and as this fact was well known to the Jews, and 
especially to Judas, who had often and often been His 
companion during those holy vigils, our Lord deemed 
that by seeking again the shades of Gethsemani He was 
choosing a spot most favorable to the success of His ene- 
mies' attempts to find and capture Him. Jesus wished 
all to perceive that He had no fears, and that, far from 
trying to avoid death, He went willingly forth to meet it. 
Others maintain that as the fall of the human race began 
in a garden, so Jesus wished that His sacred passion, 
which was destined to repair that fatal fall, should also 
begin in a garden. 

For these and similar reasons Jesus joyfully advanced 
towards Mount Olivet, not as one going to meet death, 
but as one hastening to a banquet. But the more joyful 
Jesus was, the more sorrowful His apostles were. Con- 
vinced at last that this was, indeed, their Master's last 
night on earth, they walked along with bowed heads, 



JESUS CHRIST LEAVES THE SUPPER-ROOM. 91 

painfully brooding over the irreparable loss which, they 
were about to sustain. Methinks, too, that on that lonely 
journey the apostles must have been vying with one an- 
other in the desire of drawing near to our Lord, and of 
offering Him words of sympathy and consolation. But 
such was their sorrow that no one dared to speak, and 
they pursued their way in silence. Jesus, however, did 
not remain silent, but availed Himself of these last mo- 
ments to speak to His disciples words of most heavenly 
wisdom. These will furnish abundant matter for medi- 
tation under the second point of this consideration. 

Tor the present let us pause a moment and bring up 
before our minds a vivid picture of our Lord and His 
apostles pursuing their lonely journey to Mount Olivet. 
Let us reflect that the apostles are not accompanying their 
Master now as they often accompanied Him in days past 
to some great city or castle, there to witness Him per- 
forming some wonderful miracle, or to hear Him preach- 
ing the word of eternal life. They are going with Him 
to the place of sacrifice. Let us in spirit join this holy 
company as they journey to Olivet. In this pious state 
of mind we shall experience abundant spiritual consola- 
tions, for Jesus will not fail to inspire us with holy affec- 



Second Point. 

The apostles, then, closing in lovingly around our Lord, 
were beginning to descend the hill of Sion, when Jesus 
thus addressed them : " My dear disciples, you are the 
tender branches of a rich vine ; I am the rich vine to 
which you are united as branches. Now as the branch 
that is lopped from the vine soon withers and dies, so 
you, if you separate yourselves from Me, shall be able to 
perform no work worthy of eternal life. On the other 



92 MEDITATIONS ON THE SUFFERINGS OF CHRIST. 

hand, as long as you shall observe My commands and re- 
main united to Me in the bonds of faith and charity, so 
long shall My Father have you in His holy keeping and 
bestow on you all the treasures of His grace. But if you 
abandon Me, then also shall My Father abandon you. 
Eemain steadfast, therefore, in the faith, and love one 
another as I have loved you. 

" Behold, I now no longer call you servants, but friends ; 
and I treat you as friends — intimate friends ; for a servant 
knows not the affairs of his master, while I have admitted 
you to a knowledge of all those things which I have 
heard from My Father. 

" You have not chosen Me, but I have chosen you and 
commissioned you to go forth and produce much fruit, 
and your fruit shall remain. The world, indeed, may 
persecute you ; but let not your souls be sad on this ac- 
count, but rejoice rather at seeing yourselves treated as I 
have been. As I have already told you, the servant is 
not greater than his master, nor the ambassador greater 
than the king that sends him. If I, then, who am the 
Lord of heaven and earth, and your Master, have been 
insulted, calumniated, spit upon ; if I, your Master, shall 
soon be loaded with chains, led as a malefactor from court 
to court, there to be insulted, spit upon, derided, scourged, 
and finally nailed to a cross,— if I am so treated during 
My mortal life, you, who are My disciples, cannot expect 
better treatment. 

" If you were of the world, the world would love you ; 
but because you are My disciples it will hate and persecute 
you. But do not let your courage fail ; fight on bravely 
with the arms of faith aud patience, confiding in the 
strength of My grace and omnipotence. Remember that, 
though crucified, dead, and buried, I shall not cease to be 
what I am, the omnipotent God to whom all things are 



JESUS CHRIST LEAVES THE SUPPER-ROOM. 93 

subject and nothing is impossible. You, indeed, shall 
lament and weep because of these persecutions for My 
name's sake, while the world shall rejoice ; but rest as- 
sured, My dear disciples, that your sorrows shall be 
turned into joy, and the world's joy shall be turned into 
sorrow. 

" Lo, I have foretold you all things, that, when they shall 
happen, they may not surprise you nor make you waver 
in your faith. And I have yet many things to say to you, 
but your minds are not prepared to hear them. But 
when the Holy Spirit is come, He will teach you all 
truth, illuminating your minds and fully fitting you to 
discharge all the high duties of your sacred ministry. 
Do ye, meanwhile, prepare yourselves by fervent prayer 
and rigorous fasting for the reception of this Holy Spirit ; 
and when you shall have received Him, you shall find 
yourselves changed, as it were, into other men. Such 
shall be the grace with which your souls shall abound, 
that you shall be able to do and suffer all things for the 
honor and glory of God." 

Thus ended the discourse which Jesus delivered to His 
apostles as they moved on to Olivet. If we would profit 
by its sacred teachings, we should consider its every word 
as addressed to ourselves. Let us ever remember, then, 
that as long as we remain in union with God, so long He 
remains in union with us ; " and if God be with us, who 
shall be against us V If the world persecutes us, let us 
remember that it persecuted Christ also. Let us remem- 
ber that if the world hates us, it is a sign that we are not 
of the world ; and that not to be of the world is to be of 
the number of the elect. Finally, let us remember that 
if we only have a little patience our tears shall cease and 
onr Borrow shall be turned into joy, according to the 
promise cf llim wliu.se words are eternal truth. 



94 MEDITATIONS ON THE SUFFERINGS OF CHRIST. 



CONSIDEEATION XYI. 

Jesus Christ predicts the Flight of the Apostles 
and the Triple Denial of Peter. 

" Behold, the hour eometh. and it is now come, that you shall 
be scattered every man to his own, and shall leave Me alone: and 
yet I am not alone, because the Father is with Me.'' — St. John 
xxi. 32. 

FlEST POIXT. 

TESUS was, meanwhile, drawing nearer and nearer to 
^ the Garden of Gethsemani. Kn owing how short was 
the time that remained for Him to converse with His 
beloved disciples, He ceased not to instruct them, by both 
word and example, concerning those tilings which He 
deemed best adapted to promote their spiritual advance- 
ment. Therefore, He dwelt especially on the virtue of 
humility, on the propriety of always having a pious 
diffidence in one's own strength, and on the necessity of 
having recourse to God by means of prayer, especially in 
the hour of temptation. The Divine Master had often 
taught those same lessons, but the apostles, thus far, had 
derived but little or no profit from them. They had not 
yet received the Holy Ghost, and therefore, though in- 
structed in the school of the Incarnate Wisdom, they 
were still only rude fishermen, ever attached to their own 
opinions and ambitious of worldly honors. They had 
not been reared amid the grandeur and riches of the 
world, yet they found it very difficult to submit to the 



JESUS PREDICTS THE APOSTLES' FLIGHT. 95 

requirements of self-denial, the humility of the Gospel, 
and the doctrine of the cross. Thus on that very night 
when Jesus foretold how imminent was His passion, even 
while He was speaking to them on the subject of human 
frailty and urging them to have recourse to God for help, 
the apostles thought themselves unconquerable, and 
unanimously protested that they were willing to give up 
their lives for their Divine Master. On account of a 
fervor which was the happy effect of the Holy Com- 
munion which they had received that night, they thus 
rashly relied on themselves. But Jesus, who knew what 
was to happen in a few hours, said to them : "My dear 
disciples, you now follow Me and confess that I am the 
Son of God, because you have had strong evidences of 
My divinity in the numerous miracles which you have 
seen Me perform by My own power. You have seen Me 
give sight to the blind, restore health to the sick, make 
the lame walk, and raise the dead to life. But when 
you shall behold Me a prisoner, bound like a malefactor, 
dragged before judges, and afterwards condemned to a 
most disgraceful death, you will waver in your faith and 
be greatly scandalized in Me. Alas ! not only will your 
faith waver, but you will abandon Me and leave Me in 
'the hands of My bitter enemies. Yet I shall not be 
entirely forsaken, for My heavenly Father will be with 
Me; and assisted by Him, I shall have sufficient strength 
nffer the ingratitude of your abandonment, the insults 
of My enemies, and the disgraceful and cruel death of 
the cross." 

Venerable Bede tells us that Jesus thus predicted the 
flight of the disciples, not for the purpose of rebuking 
them for their weakness and infidelity, but in order that 
after the commission of the crime they should not despair 



96 MEDITATIONS ON THE SUFFERINGS OF CHRIST. 

of His mercy, but immediately seek God again through 
penance. Therefore, to arouse more and more in His 
disciples' hearts this confidence in the mercy of God, 
Jesus added : " But after I shall be risen again, I will go 
before you into Galilee." This was equivalent to saying : 
" I shall be made to suffer a most cruel and unjust death ; 
but when I shall have lain three days in the bosom of 
the earth, as Jonas was three days in the body of the 
whale, I shall raise Myself up gloriously from the grave, 
and, triumphant over death, I shall go before you into 
Galilee. There we will meet, and you shall then know 
how truthful are My predictions and My promises." 

Every word of our Divine Saviour conveys an evidence 
of His love for us and gives us a lesson for the guidance 
of our lives. This twofold lesson of the necessity of 
diffidence in our own strength, and of boundless trust in 
the mercy of God, is taught us every day, either by the 
contents of some pious book that we read or by the words 
of some good sermon that we hear. Sometimes, alas ! it 
is also taught us by the sad example of once most holy 
persons whose rash confidence in themselves precipitated 
them into the gravest disorders. From such unhappy 
cases we should learn to grow more and more humble. 
If, at times, we ourselves fall into those excesses which, 
on other occasions, we so loudly reprove in our neighbors, 
we should at once have recourse to God. He will not 
fail to extend His mercy to us, if we promise ever more 
to be faithful and sincerely ask pardon for our past 
offences. Before sin is committed, let us tremble at the 
thought of God's justice ; after it is committed, let us 
take courage at the thought of His mercy, and immedi- 
ately have recourse to our amiable Saviour. A contrite 
and humble heart Jesus will never despise. 



JESUS PREDICTS THE APOSTLES* FLIGHT. 97 



Second Poiht. 

These last admonitions of Jesus, instead of inducing 
the apostles to conceive a great diffidence in themselves, 
seemed only to confirm them the more in the good opin- 
ion which they entertained of their own strength. St. 
Peter, in particular, protested his fidelity with great 
emphasis, saying, " Although all shall be scandalized in 
Thee, I will never be scandalized." O Peter! Peter, in- 
stead of praying to thy Divine Master to confirm thy 
faith, dost thou dare presumptuously to promise that thou 
wilt never fail ? And dost thou not perceive that thy 
indiscreet fervor, far from making thee more, only render- 
eth thee less acceptable in the eyes of God ? Ah ! far 
better for thee hadst thou cast thyself at thy Master's 
feet and implored the grace of remaining faithful. 

But let us hearken to Jesus' reply: "Amen I say to 
thee, that in this night before the cock crow, thou wilt 
deny Me thrice." How did Peter act upon hearing this 
terrible prediction ? Did he throw himself at his Master's 
feet to ask pardon for his presumption ? Did he, at least, 
beg for the assistance of divine grace in the great danger 
which awaited him 1 Did he bewail his presumption in 
having believed himself to be better than the rest of his 
brethren, though he was soon to be proved the weakest 
of all? No; but, as St. Euthimius remarks, the more 
Jesus Christ affirmed that Peter would deny Him, the 
more obstinate Peter grew in his presumption. And 
again Peter passionately exclaimed, " Yea, though I 
should die with Thee, I will not deny Thee." 

This terrible presumption of Peter is surprising in one 

who had so long listened to the teachings of Christ; and 

it is not at all relieved, but, on the contrary, it appears 

more shocking from the fact that the other apostles shared 

7 



98 MEDITATIONS ON THE SUFFERINGS OF CHRIST. 

it ; for the Scriptures tell us that they also protested their 
fidelity: "And in like manner said all the disciples" 
(St. Matt. xxvi. 35). 

What happened to the apostles, and especially to St. 
Peter, on that very night is known to all, and it will 
furnish abundant matter for reflection in future consider- 
ations. However, in order to derive some spiritual profit 
from the present consideration, let us reflect that the 
apostles were so inflamed with love of Jesus Christ that 
they would not believe that they could become scandal- 
ized in him and abandon Him,— they who had seen so 
many miracles performed by Him ; they who had been 
for three years under His teaching ; they who had that 
very night received Communion from His sacred hands. 
Now, who among us will dare say that he loves God as 
ardently as the apostles loved their Master ? And if they, 
notwithstanding all their love— a love a thousand times 
greater than ours— abandoned Jesus Christ even at the 
very beginning of His passion, what should we think of 
ourselves and of on r own strength to resist temptation? 
Our Divine Lord Himself gives us the answer : " With- 
out Me you can do nothing." He does not say that we 
can do something, however little ; but He affirms that we 
can do nothing whatever without His grace. Let our 
love be ever so great and fervent, let our life be ever so 
austere, let our faith be ever so strong and lively, let our 
hope be ever so firm, let our charity be ever so ardent- 
it is, and it always will be, true, that without the grace of 
God we can do nothing. Let us, therefore, be ever dif- 
fident of our own strength, always placing our confidence 
in God and shunning carefully every dangerous occasion 
of sin. Thus we may hope to obtain God's holy grace, 
without which we can do nothing towards attaining 
eternal life. 



JESUS' SADNESS IN THE GARDEN. 



CONSIDERATION XYII. 
Sadness of Jesus in the Garden of Gethsemani. 

"Then He saith to them: My soul is sorrowful even unto 
death: stay you here and watch with Me." — St. Matt. xxvi. 38. 

First Point. 

lpAST of Jerusalem, between Mount Olivet and Mount 
-*— ^ Moria, lies the small but memorable valley of Josa- 
phat, through which at the time of Jesus a little torrent 
flowed. Our Holy Redeemer was obliged to cross this 
valley and pass over the torrent to go to the Garden of 
Gethsemani, where He was accustomed to retire to pray 
for the salvation of mankind. This garden was situated 
on the side of Mount Olivet. It was a kind of park, one 
part of which was thickly planted with olive-trees, and 
the other part was laid out as a garden. No wall sur- 
rounded it, and it was freely accessible to all. Into this 
garden Jesus entered with His disciples, there to begin 
His fearful passion. 

The Redeemer's countenance assumed a sad and 
thoughtful expression, and He said to His disciples, 
" Sit ye here while I go yonder and pray." As the apos- 
tles were taking their seats, Jesus turned to Peter, James, 
and John, and told them to follow Him. Then with 
bowed heads and in profound silence these three followed 
their sorrowful Master into the interior of the park, and 
towards the place where the trees were thickly planted. 



100 MEDITATIONS ON THE SUFFERINGS OF CHRIST. 

" And taking with Him Peter and the two sons of Zebe- 
dee, He began to grow sorrowful and to be sad." 

Origen alleges two reasons for the choice which Jesus 
made of those three disciples in preference to the others : 
first, that they might become convinced, once and for- 
ever, of their human weakness — a subject to which they 
were not accustomed to give any attention. For St. 
Peter, only a little while before, had said that, far from 
being capable of denying his Master, he would willingly 
give up his life for Him. St. John and St. James, also, 
but a few days before, had, with great presumption, pro- 
tested that they were willing to drink of the bitter chal- 
ice prepared for Jesus. The Redeemer, therefore, wished 
those three disciples to be present at His mortal sadness, 
that they might learn from His example how great is 
human weakness and how little they should trust their 
transitory fervor. For if the Son of God at the approach 
of His painful passion became sad and found strength 
only by having recourse to God, how much more had the 
apostles need of prayer to obtain constancy and strength ! 

Origen's second reason for the Redeemer's choice is 
this : as Peter, James, and John had witnessed Jesus' 
glorious transfiguration on Mount Thabor, and had also 
received proofs of His omnipotence and divinity on the 
day when He raised the daughter of Jairus at Caphar- 
naum, so Jesus wished them now to see how weak is 
humanity when not sustained by the divine hand. 

As soon as Jesus found Himself in the company of His 
three chosen disciples and separated from the rest, He gave 
free vent to His feelings, and, sighing deeply, said : " Oh, 
if you could see My heart, you would find it immersed 
in a sea of sadness. I am as one cast out into the midst 
of the sea, and overwhelmed by the tempest ; the sorrows 



JESUS' SADNESS IN THE GARDEN. 101 

of death surround Me, and the torrents of iniquity trouble 
Me : ' My soul is sorrowful even unto death.' " 

My most amiable Jesus, where are those happy days 
when Thou didst walk upon the waters as if upon the land ? 
Where are those happy days when every one ran after 
Thee — the afflicted to be consoled, the infirm to be healed, 
the blind to be restored to sight, the leprous to be cleansed ? 
Why, O my Jesus ! why dost Thou seek no consolation for 
Thyself ? Ah ! it is because Thou art a most amiable 
Father, and Thou wishest to sacrifice Thyself for Thy be- 
loved children. 

Second Point. 

The sacred expositors of the holy text assign various 
causes for the mortal agony suffered by our Redeemer in 
the Garden of Gethsemani. St. Jerome says that Jesus 
was not afflicted because of the imminence of the hour of 
His passion, since it was to undergo this passion that He 
had come into the world. But He suffered on account of 
the unhappy fate of Judas, on account of the scandal 
which the other apostles would receive, on account of the 
blindness and reprobation of the Jewish people, and on 
account of the destruction that was to come upon the un- 
fortunate city of Jerusalem over which He had already 
shed tears. 

St. Bernardine of Sienna tells us that Jesus was sad- 
dened principally because He foresaw that, notwithstand- 
ing His passion and death, many through their own fault 
would be deprived of the eternal glory of heaven. 

Father Lewis Navarino says that the Saviour experi- 
enced fear, fright, and grief in order to alleviate those 
same feelings in us : for as, if He did not die, He would 
not subjugate death ; so, if He did not experience fear. 



102 MEDITATIONS ON THE SUFFERINGS OF CHRIST. 

fright, arid grief, He would not mitigate those emotions 
in us. 

St. Cyprian, looking at the subject from another point 
of view, exclaims : " Who shall not fear, if Jesus Him- 
self was afraid % "Who shall not tremble, if Jesus Him- 
self trembled, before Whom every knee must bend ? 
Who shall not be terrified at the approach of death, if the 
One who is the death of death and the terror of hell was 
Himself terrified at death's approach ?" 

St. Lawrence Justinian in his turn exclaims : " What 
do I behold, my beloved Lord ? Art Thou sorrowful, 
and dost Thou really experience fear ? Is He who is the 
very essence of joy now Himself become sorrowful? 
Does fortitude tremble ? Does glory suffer tedium ? Is 
splendor obscured ? Is health become infirmity % Yet 
I see no armed men. I see no enemies approaching with 
swords and scourges. Why, therefore, dost Thou fear 
and tremble, O Lord ? Thou art the great Captain of the 
Christian militia, and dost Thou tremble? Ah! I know 
the cause of Thy sorrow. Thou art suffering by antici- 
pation, not simply for the corporal agony which Thou 
art about to endure, but Thou art suffering for all that 
the martyrs must undergo in the future. Thou art stoned 
with Stephen, crucified with Peter, flayed with Barthol- 
omew, devoured by wild beasts with Ignatius. These 
are the true causes of Thy agony." 

Finally, let us hear the words of the Seraphic Doctor, 
St. Bonaventure, who thus addresses his agonizing Sav- 
iour : " O my most amiable Jesus, these words of Thine 
cause me great surprise, — ' My soul is sorrowful even un- 
to death.' But why dost Thou fear ? What is the cause 
of Thy sorrow ? Is it because of Thy impending suffer- 
ings ? Is it death which Thou fearest ? But was it not 



JESUS' SADNESS IN THE GARDEN. 103 

in order to die that Thou didst become man ? For what 
reason didst Thou become incarnate in the womb of the 
Blessed Virgin Mary, if not to destroy by Thy death our 
eternal death ? What would it avail that Thou becamest 
man, were the grand object of the Redemption not to be 
accomplished ? And if Thou didst not, O merciful Jesus, 
who shall satisfy for my sins 1 Did I not hear Thee say 
to Judas but a moment ago, ' That which thou dost, do 
quickly ' ? Then Thou wast impatient to meet death, 
and now dost Thou seek to avoid it? Ah ! no ; it is not 
so ; Thou ref usest not to consummate the great sacrifice. 
I believe rather, O Lord, that, being man, Thou wish- 
est to subject Thyself to all the human passions, and, 
therefore, as man Thou fearest death, but as God Thou 
longest for death ; and Thou art sorrowful because death 
seems too long in coming. Oh ! the great love of God 
towards man ! Oh ! the great ingratitude of man towards 
God !" 

"Whatever may have been the cause of Jesus' mortal 
agony in the garden, it conveys to us a great lesson, one 
which will be especially profitable for us in times of 
affliction. Docs the thought of death afflict us? The 
same thought also afflicted Jesus. Does the loss of some 
dear departed one embitter our remembrance ? Jesus in 
the garden had to bear up against the bitter remembrance 
of the loss of Judas. Does the number of our sins ter- 
rify us? Jesus experienced the same terror. Do mis- 
fortunes and calamities grieve us? Jesus suffered the 
same grief. 

But what did the Eedeemer do in the midst of these 
sorrows ? He had recourse to His Heavenly Father, and 
was relieved from them. Let us do likewise in our afflic- 
tions, and God will relieve us also. 



104 MEDITATIONS ON THE SUFFERINGS OF CHRIST. 



CONSIDEKATION XVIII. 

Prayer of Jesus Christ in the Garden of Geth- 
semani. 

" Father, if it be possible, let this chalice pass from Me; never- 
theless, not as I will, but as Thou wilt." — St. Matt. xxvi. 39. 

First Point. 

A BOUT a stone's throw from the Garden of Geth- 
-^-*- seinani was a grotto hewn out of the solid rock. 
The light was admitted into this grotto through a hole in 
the roof. In this country a custom prevailed of building 
cisterns for the purpose of holding rain-water. This fact, 
together with the form of the grotto and the aperture in 
the top, leads to the inference that it was formerly used 
as a cistern from which the garden was watered. At the 
time of our Lord it was old and abandoned, and no longer 
capable of retaining water, but it afforded the loiterer in 
the garden a place of refuge in warm or rainy weather. 
This grotto, now converted into a little chapel, still exists. 
It is called the Grotto of Agony, on account of the 
agony and bloody sweat which our Divine Saviour suf- 
fered there. 

Ha.ving manifested to His three disciples the profound 
sadness under which he was laboring, Jesus said to them, 
" Sit ye here, till I go yonder and pray." And He im- 
mediately retired into the grotto. The solitude of the 
place, the darkness of the night, the profound silence of 



PRAYER OF JESUS IN THE GARDEN. 105 

nature, and the imminence of the hour of His capture, — 
these were circumstances which combined to cause the 
Saviour to raise His voice in prayer to His Heavenly 
Father. 

Before examining the prayer of Jesus, let us, according 
to the suggestion of Origen, consider that the Divine Master, 
in separating from the eight disciples, had simply said, 
" Sit ye here ;" but to Peter, James, and John, who had 
witnessed His transfiguration on Mount Thabor and were, 
therefore, reputed stronger than the other apostles, He 
said, " Stay you here and watch with me ;" which words 
are thus paraphrased by Cornelius a Lapide : " Stay ye 
here and look upon your Master in His agony, and see 
how He has recourse to His Eternal Father. Watch Me, 
that you may behold the intensity of My sufferings. See 
into what a state of extreme desolation I am cast, that 
you may learn how to act in your own future hours of 
sorrow. Finally, observe Me, and watch with Me, unit- 
ing your prayers with Mine, that thus you may give Me 
some little comfort in My sufferings." But Jesus did 
not receive even this small relief from His disciples. 

Abandoned by men, our Lord then turned to His 
Eternal Father. The Seraphic Doctor, St. Bonaventure, 
puts these words on the lips of the agonizing Saviour : 
" The chalice of My passion is so filled with bitterness 
that I dare not press it to My lips. In spirit I see one of 
My dear disciples, who has sold Me to the chief priests, 
and advances now at the head of armed men who are 
coming to make Me prisoner. I see the hatred enter- 
tained against Me by the Jews, who are thirsting for My 
blood. I foresee all the persecutions which My beloved 
disciples will have to undergo for My sake. I foresee 
the desolation of My beloved Mother when she shall hear 



106 MEDITATIONS ON THE SUFFERINGS OF CHRIST. 

of My capture and see Me crucified. I already see 
before Me all the sufferings which I shall have to undergo 
during the whole course of My bitter passion ; and in the 
midst of all these persecutions and tortures My courage 
fails Me, so that I am forced to ask Thee to remove from 
Me this bitter chalice. Ah ! My Father, grant that with- 
out My death, death may be destroyed and sin wiped 
away. Let man at once be redeemed, let hell be con- 
quered, and the gates of heaven opened : ' My Father, 
if it be possible, let this chalice pass from Me ; neverthe- 
less not as I will, but as Thou wilt.' " 

Such was the prayer of Jesus Christ in the Garden of 
Gethsemani ; a prayer short and simple, but which, not- 
withstanding its brevity and simplicity, conveys many 
wise lessons for our instruction. Let us, therefore, often 
meditate on these words : " My Father, if it be possible, 
let this chalice pass from me ; nevertheless, not as I will, 
but as Thou wilt," 

Second Point. 

Not only the words, but also the deeds of our Divine 
Lord should serve as a rule for the conduct of our 
lives, His every word and action conveying a salutary 
lesson for our guidance. Let us, therefore, consider the 
prayer which He made in the Garden of Olives, imme- 
diately after His agony. 

But first we should reflect, according to the suggestion 
of a pious author, that experiencing grief does not imply 
imperfection, since it is only natural that human nature 
should bow under the weight of human infirmity. 
Secondly, we should understand that experiencing great 
grief at the loss of one's reputation is not necessarily an 
indication of imperfection, since it is in the maintenance 



PEAYER OF JESUS IN THE GARDEN. 107 

of reputation tbat man's real life chiefly consists. 
Thirdly, we should consider with the same pious author 
that fear, sorrow, and annoyance at the troubles and dis- 
appointments of this life do not constitute imperfection, 
since Jesus Christ, who was perfection itself, became sad, 
aye, and sorrowful even unto death, at the sight of the 
sufferings that He was to undergo. A Man-God became 
sad ; and shall we, then, who are but dust and ashes, not be 
allowed to succumb ? 

It is only natural, therefore, to yield to grief. But to 
whom should we go in order to assuage it ? Like Jesus, 
we should have recourse to our Heavenly Father, sub- 
mitting our will to His, saying, " My Father, if it be 
possible, let this chalice pass from me ; nevertheless, not 
as I will, but as Thou wilt." 

St. Dionysius Carthusianus, commenting on these 
words, " Not as I will, but as Thou wilt," says : " Behold 
how humble, how sweet and affectionate is this prayer. 
It is, therefore, the very prayer that we should use in our 
hours of trial and affliction ; because at such times we 
should humble ourselves before God, ask the graces of 
which we stand in need, and submit ourselves to His 
holy will." 

St. Leo the Great says : " That word of our Head, 
' Thy will be done,' is the salvation of the whole body. 
It is that word which has instructed all the faithful, in- 
spired the love of all the holy confessors of the faith, 
crowned all the martyrs, and fortified all the virgins of 
the Church. Let all the faithful, therefore, learn this 
sublime and truly divine prayer, so that when they are in 
any adversity whatsoever, they may overcome it by sub- 
mission to the holy will of God." 

At the thought of the Man-God having recourse to 



108 MEDITATIONS ON THE SUFFERINGS OF CHRIST. 

prayer, St. Lawrence Justinian exclaims: "O man! 
proud man, what dost thou do ! Art thou stronger than 
was Christ ? The agonizing Jesus has recourse to prayer, 
and thou, poor miserable sinner, presumest to suffer with- 
out deigning to invoke divine aid !" 

The lesson which we should learn from Christ's example 
is this,— the necessity of prayer. But it is not sufficient 
to pray only in time of adversity ; we should pray always, 
and pray with entire submission to the divine will. Let 
us expose to our dear Saviour all our wants and miseries ; 
let us ask not only for salvation, but also for all the tem- 
poral blessings of which we may stand in need ; let us 
ask Him for health and for preservation from all the 
accidents and dangers that surround our daily life. But 
let us ever make these requests in the spirit of the prayer 
of Jesus Christ, saying with Him, " Not as I will, but 
as Thou wilt." 



THE MOKTAL AGONY OF JESUS. 109 



CONSIDEKATION XIX. 
The Mortal Agony of Jesus Christ. 

And being in agony, He prayed the more." — 8t. Luke xxih 43. 



H 



First Poiht. 

AYI1STG finished His prayer of wondrous fervor 
and resignation, and still experiencing no relief in 
answer to its devout recital, Jesus went out from the 
grotto to seek some solace for His afflicted spirit in the 
company of His beloved disciples. But here again He 
was doomed to disappointment ; for, notwithstanding the 
fervent injunctions laid upon them to watch and pray in 
order not to fall into temptation, He found them asleep. 
He aroused and gently reproached them, saying, " What ! 
could yon not watch one hour with Me ?" This was as if 
Jesus had said, "What ! you cannot watch one hour with 
Me on this night so gloomy and dreadful for Me ? Where 
now are all your promises of fidelity ? You protested but 
a moment ago that you would willingly die with Me. 
Alas! if you could but know the terrible persecutions 
which menace us this night, you would not thus yield 
to sleep. Pray, therefore, that you enter not into temp- 
tation." 

In order to mitigate in some measure the bitterness of 
this well-merited reproach, our Lord subjoined, "The 
spirit indeed is willing, but the flesh weak;" which was 
equivalent to saying, " But do not lose courage, My be- 



110 MEDITATIONS ON THE SUFFERINGS OF CHRIST. 

loved disciples, for I know well how weak is human 
nature. The spirit indeed is willing, ready to make 
generous sacrifices, but the flesh is weak and yields easily 
to even the slightest temptations." 

Saying this, Jesus returned to the grotto, and with in- 
creased fervor addressed His prayer again to the Eternal 
Father. But still no consolation came. Thereupon He 
sought His beloved disciples once more, and found them 
again asleep. Leaving them undisturbed, He returned 
to prayer. But that night the heavens had become as 
bronze to the prayers and supplications of Jesus. The 
divinity seemed to have gone out from Him, or rather it 
was present in Him only to increase the measure of His 
anguish, by causing the whole series of the sufferings of 
His passion to pass in dreadful review before His mind. 

Thus He beheld all the outrages, insults, and torments 
which the Jews were at that moment preparing for Him. 
He saw the ropes and chains with which He was soon to 
be bound in that very garden. He felt the blows and 
saw the derision to which He was to be subjected in the 
court of Annas and Caiphas. He beheld the scourges 
and thorns ready to torture Him in the court of Pilate. 
He saw the ridicule and insults with which He was to be 
received in the court of Herod. He saw, too, there be- 
fore Him the cross, the nails, the hammers, the vinegar 
and gall, which were to be instruments of His passion on 
Mount Golgotha. All the sins of the world, past, pres- 
ent, and future, rose up before Him, and He saw Him- 
self loaded with their weight and standing as if guilty of 
them all in the presence of His Eternal Father. He saw 
how few would save their souls, and how many, notwith- 
standing all His sufferings, would be lost. He foresaw 
that one of His apostles would betray Him, that another 



THE MORTAL AGONY OF JESUS. Ill 

would deny Him, and that all would abandon Him. He 
foresaw all the pain, anguish, and affliction that were to 
come upon His dear Mother, till, overwhelmed at the 
sight of this dreadful array of suffering and torments, 
Jesus falls into a mortal agony. A death-like pallor 
overspreads His divine countenance. He is filled with 
anguish and terror ; but still collecting His remaining 
strength, He pours forth to His Eternal Father the same 
prayer of love and resignation : " O my most loving 
Father, have pity on Thy Son ! Ah, remove from My 
spirit the vision of all these horrible torments, and grant 
that I may not have to drink of this bitter chalice ! But 
if this chalice may not pass away, but I must drink it, 
Thy will be done." 

As Jesus uttered this prayer, His heart seemed to break 
within His bosom ; the pores of His body opened, and 
blood oozed forth and came trickling down to the ground, 
falling so profusely that it soon formed a small stream 
which ran through the grotto : " And His sweat became 
as drops of blood trickling down upon the ground " (St* 
Luke xxii. 44). 

Second Point. 

St. Lawrence Justinian, contemplating the agony of 
Jesus in the garden, breaks out into the following apos- 
trophe : " Draw near, O Christian soul, to thy agonizing 
Saviour ; behold how deserving He is of all thy compas- 
sion. "With the eyes of faith contemplate thy merciful 
Jesus, the King of heaven and earth, kneeling there in 
supplication, trembling, agonizing, sweating blood ! Such 
a sight must surely win from thee the tribute of thy 
tears ; for how canst thou restrain them on beholding thy 
God shedding for love of thee not only tears, but also 



112 MEDITATIONS ON THE SUFFERINGS OF CHRIST. 

blood ? Look upon the merciful Jesus, the Fountain of 
all good, prostrate on the ground, with pallor on His 
brow, His heart oppressed with anguish, His limbs bathed 
in blood, — and then let thy pity be excited, and groan 
and weep with Jesus in the sorrow of thy heart. Judge, 
O Christian soul, by Jesus' sweat of blood, how great 
must be His anguish and how horrible will be His pas- 
sion ! If, at the consideration of future sufferings, He 
agonizes, what will He not suffer when He will be cruci- 
fied ? If so great a sadness takes possession of Thee, O 
Jesus, at the very beginning of Thy passion, what shall 
be Thy emotions when Thou wilt be struck, insulted, 
scourged, crowned with thorns, cursed, blasphemed, and 
crucified ?" 

To Jesus, thus immersed in a sea of suffering and sor- 
row, the Eternal Father was pleased at last to send an 
angel from heaven to comfort and console Him : " And 
there appeared to Him an Angel from heaven strengthen- 
ing Him." 

It is the opinion of Dionysius Carthusianus and other 
pious contemplative writers that this angel was the Arch- 
angel Michael, prince of the heavenly hosts. The above- 
mentioned writers put these words on the Archangel's 
lips : " Lord, Thou art now about to liberate mankind 
from the slavery of hell; the hour of Thy passion, so 
long announced by the prophets, so anxiously awaited by 
the souls of the just in Limbo, is at hand. Thou know- 
est that the redemption of mankind can be accomplished 
only by Thee. If, therefore, Thou hast this great work 
at heart, it is necessary for Thee to die the death that has 
been so long prophesied for Thee." Thus spoke the 
Archangel, to whom, according to Blessed Bernardine de 
Busto, Jesus made answer: "I desire the salvation of 



THE MORTAL AGO^Y OF JESTJ3. 113 

man, and, therefore, I accept the most painful death of 
the cross. 1 ' O incomparable love of Christ, which made 
Him choose death rather than see the human race con- 
demned forever ! 

From this consideration we should learn how to pray. 
Father Lewis Navarino observes that the angel appeared 
to Jesus after His prayer, — not that our Lord needed the 
angel's assistance, He Himself being the consolation of 
all the afflicted, but that it should not appear that Jesus 
in His anguish had prayed to His Father in vain. Again, 
we are taught by the coming of the angel that we, too, 
should have recourse to prayer in all our necessities, hav- 
ing confidence that we shall certainly obtain relief, though, 
by a just decree of Heaven, our tribulations may not at 
once be removed. Let us ever keep before us the exam- 
ple of our Divine Master. His prayer was not granted 
immediately, but He persisted until an angel was sent 
from heaven to comfort Him. As the Eternal Father 
consoled Jesus, so also will He console us. "Ash and 
you shall receive," Jesus said to His disciples. Let us, 
therefore, ask with confidence, faith, and perseverance, 
and God will infallibly hear us. 



114 MEDITATIONS ON THE SUFFERINGS OF CHRIST, 



CONSIDERATION XX. 

Jesus is betrayed by Judas, and captured by 
the Soldiers. 

"Judas, dost thou betray the Son of man with a kiss?"— St. 
Luke xxii. 48. 

First Point. 

COMFOETED by the Angel's visit, and feeling His 
strength renewed, Jesus went for the third time to 
His apostles. Again finding them asleep, He aroused 
them, saying reproachfully : " Sleep ye now, and take 
your rest : behold, the hour is at hand, and the Son of 
man shall be betrayed into the hands of sinners." Then 
resuming His usual sweetness of manner, He subjoined : 
" Rise, let us go : behold, he is at hand that will betray 
Me." Accompanied by Peter, James, and John, He then 
proceeded towards the spot where He had left the rest 
of His disciples. Here He halted to await the arrival of 
Judas the traitor, who approached with armed soldiery to 
arrest Him. 

This wicked disciple, who knew well the place where 
Jesus was accustomed to pass whole nights in prayer, 
obtained from the chief priests a band of soldiers, armed 
with swords, clubs, and ropes, and also one of the servants 
of the chief priests ; and, placing himself at their head, he 
led this wicked band, in the silence of the night, from 
the city of Jerusalem to the Garden of Gethsemani. 
Some carried torches and lanterns and went on before 
the multitude ; but all were under the command of Judas, 
who, previous to leaving the city, had given them a sign 



BETRAYAL AND CAPTURE OF JESUS. 115 

by which they might easily recognize Jesus. He said to 
them, " Whomsoever I shall kiss, that is He : hold Him 
fast." 

Thus equipped for the accomplishment of their nefa- 
rious designs, the enemies of Jesus approached Geth- 
semani. Through fear of being discovered they walked 
in profound silence, but the light of their lanterns and 
torches gleaming through the foliage of the olive-trees 
gave the signal of their arrival. Jesus and His disciples 
saw the lights, and soon caught the sounds of approach- 
ing footsteps ; but instead of attempting to escape, they 
advanced to meet their enemies. When they had come 
face to face, Judas came forth from among his followers, 
threw his arms around his Master's neck, impressed a kiss 
upon His sacred brow, and said, " Hail, Eabbi !" 

The Holy Fathers and other expositors of the sacred 
text, commenting on this terrible incident in the history 
of the betrayal of Jesus, express the greatest horror at 
the enormity of the crime. 

St. Augustine among others, considering the manner 
in which it was perpetrated, is filled with a holy indigna- 
tion, and exclaims : " O sacrilegious sign ! by which war 
is begun under the appearance of peace. Perfidious 
apostle ! dost thou not experience horror throughout thy 
soul at the thought of shedding the blood of "the Just 
under the guise of friendship ? Durst thou, under cover 
of a sign of affection, deal a cruel blow to the loving 
heart of Jesus ? Durst thou deal a death blow under the 
false sign of peace? What iniquity! The servant be- 
trays his Lord ! the disciple sells his Master!" 

But the loving Saviour, who still desired the conversion 
of Judas, even at the moment when that unhappy apostle 
was perpetrating his horrible crime, said to him, "Friend, 
whereto art thou come?" Then, in accents of paternal 



116 MEDITATIONS ON THE SUFFERINGS OF CHRIST. 

reproof and loving entreaty, He subjoined, " Judas, dost 
thou betray the Son of man with a kiss?" which was as 
if Jesus had said : " What have I done to deserve such 
treatment from thee ? Oh, return to My friendship and 
love ! O child, return to the arms of thy loving Father ! 
Think on what thou hast done ! Eepent of thy crime, 
and then give Me another kiss ; but let that be a kiss of 
peace, of love, of repentance, and I will repay thee with 
a kiss of forgiveness. Fear not, O son of My mercy ! 
Remember that I came down from heaven to save sin- 
ners. Remember the parable of the prodigal son, and 
know that I am that tender Father whose pleasure it ever 
is to welcome back the erring one. Come, O my son ! 
Return to Me and receive the kiss of peace !" 

Thus the loving Jesus spoke to the heart of the sacri- 
legious Judas, but in vain ; for the devil had already 
taken possession of the traitor, and had secured his heart 
against every emotion but despair. 

Let us ponder well the twofold excess which this con- 
sideration presents to our mind: the almost incredible 
iniquity of Judas on the one hand, and the ineffable love 
of Jesus Christ on the other. An apostle betrays his 
Divine Master with a kiss, and the Master calls him 
friend during the very moment that the horrible crime 
is being consummated. 

Second Point. 
Jesus, having now made the last effort to convert Judas, 
turned at once to the soldiers, and with a majesty befit- 
ting a God who has at His command all the elements of 
heaven and earth, He said to them, " Whom seek you f 
They answered. " Jesus of Xazareth.'' Then Jesus said, 
" I am the one whom you seek ;" and immediately, as if 
stricken by lightning, the men were hurled backwards 



BETRAYAL AND CAPTURE OF JESUS. 117 

and fell to the ground, and the perfidious Judas fell also. 
Our Lord gave His captors this proof of His divinity and 
omnipotence, in order that they might have no excuse 
for their incredulity and hardness of heart in not recog- 
nizing Him as God. Again He asked them, ""Whom 
seek ye ?" and again they answered, " Jesus of Nazareth." 
Then Jesus gave them power to arise, saying, " I have 
told you that I am He : if, therefore, you seek Me, let these 
go their way." The soldiers did not become better at 
the sight of such power and meekness combined ; but 
they at once arose from the ground, and seizing upon the 
person of the Saviour, they began to heap upon Him the 
foulest insults and infamies, striking Him with their fists, 
spitting in His sacred face, tying Him with ropes, placing 
an iron chain around His neck, and then dragging Him 
about. In a word, they covered Him with every possible 
insult, till in a little while He stood among them " a 
Man of sorrows," as He had been foreseen in the vision 
of the prophet Isaias. 

The apostles were present at the. capture of their be- 
loved Master, and being unable to bear the sight of His 
awful tortures, they said to Him, " Lord, shall we strike 
with the sword 2" Meantime, Peter, the most resolute of 
them, without waiting for an answer, drew his sword from 
its scabbard, struck the servant of the high priest, and 
cut off his ear. This man had, perhaps, treated Jesus 
with more cruelty than any of His companions. Never- 
less, this inconsiderate act of Peter keenly wounded the 
Master's heart ; for the Saviour did not wish to defend 
Himself by returning injury for injury, but only by doing 
good. Therefore He immediately worked a miracle in 
favor of the wounded man by restoring him his ear. 
Then turning to Peter, He reproached him, saying, " Put 



118 MEDITATIONS ON THE SUFFERINGS OF CHRIST. 

up again thy sword into its place ; for all that take the 
sword shall perish with the sword. Thinkest thou that 
I cannot ask My Father, and He will give Me presently 
more than twelve legions of Angels ? How then shall 
the scriptures be fulfilled, that so it must be done?" 

After these words addressed to Peter, Jesus turned to 
the soldiers who were holding Him, and, reproaching 
them for the manner in which they had accomplished His 
arrest, said to them : " You have come out as against a 
robber, with swords and clubs, to apprehend Me. I sat 
daily with you teaching in the temple, and you laid not 
hands on Me." This was equivalent to saying : "I have 
lived among you ; I have instructed you ; I have per- 
formed miracles before you. "Why did you not makeMe 
prisoner on some previous occasion, when it was easily in 
your power to do so, rather than capture Me in the silence 
of the night, while I was praying to My Heavenly Father ? 
Unhappy men, do you not see that nothing is unknown 
to Me, that I foresee all, that I dispose of all things ac- 
cording to My will, and that you cannot do anything 
without My permission ? But now your hour is come: 
do, therefore, with Me whatever you wish, but dare not 
to touch one of My disciples ; let them go forth unmo- 
lested." 

Among the many points which this consideration offers 
for our pious meditation, we should particularly dwell on 
these : first, the meekness of Jesus when He reproached 
Peter for having had recourse to the sword ; secondly, 
the charity and pity He showed by restoring Malchus' 
ear ; thirdly, the love and fidelity He showed for His 
disciples by securing their safety and freedom. 

The fruit to be derived from this consideration is a 
great and ever-increasing love for Jesus Christ, our meek, 
merciful, faithful, and loving Saviour. 



JESUS IS ABANDONED BY HIS DISCIPLES. 119 



CONSIDEKATIOE" XXI. 

Jesus is abandoned by His Disciples and dragged 
through the Road of Capture. 

"Then His disciples leaving Him, all fled away." — St. Mark 
xiv. 50. 

First Point. 

AMONG- the many celebrated streets of Jerusalem 
and its suburbs, two are especially interesting, Lav- 
ing been hallowed by the presence of the Son of God, 
not in the days of His glory, but in the days of His 
humiliation and sorrow, when, loaded with chains and 
covered with opprobrium, He was led out to Calvary. 

The one is called the Way of Capture, the other the 
Way of Passion. The former commences at the Garden 
of Gethsemani, and leads to the palace of Annas, extend- 
ing thence to that of Caiphas, and on to the tribunal of 
Pontius Pilate. Of the latter, which commences at the 
tribunal of Pontius Pilate and extends to Mount Calvary, 
we shall have occasion to speak when we shall contem- 
plate and, in spirit, accompany Jesus to the place of sac- 
rifice. But for the present let us consider the anguish 
and sufferings of Jesus Christ while in the first stage of 
II is journey over the Way of Capture, from Gethsemani 
to the palace of Annas. 

In the first place, it was not a slight torture for 
Jesus to see Himself abandoned by His disciples. Ac- 



120 MEDITATIONS ON THE SUFFERINGS OF CHRIST. 

cording to St. Mark, the moment the apostles saw their 
Divine Master taken prisoner, they were overwhelmed 
with fear, and fled, leaving Jesns in the hands of His 
hitter enemies. Nor did they direct their flight towards 
Jerusalem or Bethania T where they could have warned the 
friends of their Master, and thus, perhaps, compass His 
rescue ; but they ran through the valley of Siloch, and 
thence to the valley of the son of Ennon, where they 
took refuge in a cave. This cave, or grotto, which is 
still pointed out to the tourist, is hollowed out of the 
solid rock, and had probably been used before the time 
of the apostles as a sepulchre. In this dreary place they 
spent that night, and perhaps the whole of the following 
day. 

On this occasion St. Peter showed himself less fearful, 
or rather more daring, than the other disciples. But how 
fatal was this daring to St. Peter ! He did not run away, 
but followed his beloved Master from afar, "that he 
might see the end." The soldiers, meanwhile, fearing 
lest Jesus might escape from their hands, loaded Him 
with additional chains, according to a suggestion pre- 
viously made by Judas; and, rejoicing over their brutal 
action, they redoubled their cruelties and pressed the 
Saviour to accelerate His pace. 

A young man, perhaps the son of the gardener of 
Gethsemani, aroused from sleep by the noise, wrapped 
a sheet around him and rushed out to discover the cause 
of the disturbance. The soldiers saw him and pursued 
him ; but just as they were in the act of capturing him, 
he threw off the sheet and, leaving it in their hands, fled 
away naked. From this incident we can judge how great 
was the confusion that prevailed during that night all 
along the "Way of Capture. Some fled here and some 



JESUS IS ABANDONED BY HIS DISCIPLES. 121 

fled there, as the soldiers advanced with the Divine Cap- 
tive. Every one feared for himself, but no one minded 
Jesus, who, like a gentle lamb, was led to the sacrifice. 

]N"o one can hope to describe the ill-treatment to which 
Jesus was subjected on that ever-memorable night. How 
many blows and rough pushes did He not receive from 
the soldiers ? In the second point of this consideration 
we shall meditate upon those cruel injuries. But for the 
present let our attention be occupied by this one reflec- 
tion, — the utter weakness of human nature when not as- 
sisted by the special grace of God. 

The flight of the apostles contains a great lesson for us. 
How often had they not promised that they would never 
abandon their Master ? Yet on the very first occasion of 
danger they leave Him alone with His enemies ! How often 
do we not act similarly % How often do we not relapse 
into sins which only a short time before we had promised 
never again to commit? Let us, therefore, be always 
distrustful of our own strength, and let this holy distrust 
be the fruit of the present consideration. 

Second Point. 

After the flight of the apostles, Jesus stood alone and 
defenceless in the midst of the brutal soldiery. They 
dragged Him out of the garden, and, marching along the 
eastern border of the torrent of Cedron, they led Him 
through the valley of Josaphat, till they arrived at 
Absalom's monument. Here was a little bridge, over 
which, as many contemplatives teach, the soldiers passed, 
at the same time dragging Jesus through the torrent 
beneath by means of a rope tied around His neck. It 
was winter, and the shallow waters of the torrent were 



122 MEDITATIONS ON THE SUFEERINGS OF CHRIST. 

very cold ; the lacerated feet of Jesus became too numb 
to uphold Him longer, and He fell. It was to this fall — 
so the same contemplatives claim — that the Royal Psalmist 
alluded, when he said : " He shall drink of the torrent in 
the way : therefore shall He lift up the head." But the 
rocks that strewed the bed of Cedron, less hardened than 
the hearts of the soldiers, were softened, and, at the first 
touch of the Saviour's sacred body, became as molten wax 
and received the impress of His knee and elbow. One still 
may see in that very spot a stone which bears the impres- 
sion of a man's knee. The fact that there is an indul- 
gence attached to the stone seems to confirm the truth of 
this pious tradition of Jesus' fall in the torrent of 
Cedron. 

Seeing that Jesus could not regain His feet, some of the 
soldiers prodded Him with their swords, while others 
pulled Him by the rope tied round His neck, till finally 
they dragged Him out of the water. Then they began 
the ascent of Mount Moria on the southern side where it 
joins Mount Sion. Only three hours had elapsed since 
Jesus, having left the supper-room, passed over that same 
road. But in that brief space of time what changes were 
wrought! Then He was accompanied by His beloved 
disciples : now He is surrounded by His executioners. 
Then He held sweet converse with His apostles about 
heavenly things : now He hears the horrible imprecations 
and blasphemies of the soldiery. Then He went to pray 
to His Eternal Father for the salvation of mankind : now 
He goes to consummate the sacrifice of the cross. 

At last they came to the gate of the city; it was 
promptly opened by the guards, who had been already 
forewarned and stood in anxious waiting. The guards 
congratulated the soldiers upon their success in capturing 



JESUS IS ABANDONED BY HIS DISCIPLES. 123 

the " malefactor," as they blasphemously termed Jesus 
Christ. 

From the location of the house of Annas it may be 
easily proved that Jesus was led into the city through 
the stercoraceous gate — that is, the gate through which 
the refuse and rubbish of the city was usually discharged. 
What a change ! Only five days before Jesus had entered 
the city in triumph through the Golden Gate : now He is 
dragged in chains through the Gate Stercoraria ! 

The inhabitants of Jerusalem were aroused from their 
sleep by the noise of the soldiers and the crowd shouting 
their plaudits over the capture of the " great malefactor." 
Some looked from their windows as the crowd surged 
by ; others hastened out of their houses, not, as on the 
day of His triumph, to pay homage to the Son of David, 
but to deride, mock, and taunt Him. They called Him 
an impostor and a seducer, and all were loud in their 
praises of the soldiers for the service they had rendered 
the Jewish people by making Him prisoner. 

Such were the insults and imprecations that accom- 
panied the patient Jesus on the Way of Capture. We 
cannot account for this frenzy of the Jewish people, un- 
less we attribute it to the malignant suggestions of Satan, 
who vented his hatred of Jesus Christ through the voice 
of the maddened crowd. When criminals guilty of most 
heinous crimes at last fall into the hands of Justice, they 
awaken some degree of compassion even in the hearts of 
those whom they have injured. There is no heart so 
hard that it does not relent and soften on seeing them 
brought to capital punishment. But for Jesus there is 
no sense of humanity even in those whom He has so 
highly benefited. It was now the hour of the prince of 
darkness, as Christ had foretold His apostles ; and the 



124 MEDITATIONS ON THE SUFFERINGS OF CHRIST. 

prince of darkness used the rabble of Jerusalem as His 
instruments, — the same rabble that live days before ap- 
plauded Jesus' triumphant entry into the city ; the same 
rabble that had often witnessed and applauded His won- 
drous miracles. 

Let us in spirit accompany Jesus along the "Way of 
Capture ; and if we cannot comfort Him, let us, at least, 
pity Him, fixing our attention on these three incidents 
of that memorable journey : His fall into the torrent of 
Cedron ; His ascent of Moria like another Isaac ; His 
entrance into Jerusalem through the gate called Sterco- 
raria. 



JESUS IS QUESTIONED BY ANNAS. 125 



CONSIDERATION XXII. 

Jesus is questioned by Annas and struck by a 
Servant. 

"And when He had said these things, one of the servants 
standing by gave Jesus a blow, saying: Answerest Thon the high- 
priest so ? " — 8t. John xviii. 22. 

Fiest Point. 

OUR Holy Redeemer, loaded with chains, His ears 
deafened by the blasphemous shouts of the rabble, 
His limbs aching from the numberless kicks and blows 
that He had received, was at last led into the house of 
Annas. This house, situated on that side of Mount Sion 
which overlooked the temple, was not far from the ster- 
coraceous gate. 

Now, Annas was the father-in-law of Caiphas. He was 
a priest and also a member of the Sanhedrim, or council 
of seventy-two elders appointed to discuss the grand ques- 
tions of the nation. Of the members of this malignant 
council, perhaps Annas was most eager in desiring the 
death of Jesus Christ. For this reason the soldiers pre- 
ferred his tribunal to that of any other judge, and led the 
Saviour there ; they also thought that they were paying 
Annas honor, and hoped to receive some recompense for 
the same. 

This priest was a simple member of the Sanhedrim ; 
and therefore had no right on his own private authority 



126 MEDITATIONS ON THE SUFFERINGS OF CHRIST. 

to question any one, however guilty. But in the case of 
our Lord every trace of justice was to be trampled under 
foot. Annas, only too proud of the regard shown him 
by the soldiers, arrogated to himself the right of sitting 
alone in judgment, and at that unusual hour, and forth- 
with proceeded to question the supposed culprit concern- 
ing His doctrine and His disciples. 

St. John Chrysostom observes that no guilt whatever 
being imputable to the conduct of Jesus Christ, the ques- 
tions of the judge did not regard the person of the 
Saviour, but only the nature of His doctrines and the 
character of His disciples. Annas began to question 
Jesus thus : " What is Thy doctrine ? Who are Thy 
disciples ? Why hast Thou called them to follow Thee ? 
What dost Thou teach them ?" The mild Jesus meekly 
made answer : " I have spoken openly to the world : I 
have always taught in the synagogues and in the temple, 
whither all the Jews resort ; and in secret I have spoken 
nothing. Why askest thou Me ? ask them who have 
heard what I have spoken unto them : behold they know 
what thiugs I have said." 

This meek and humble reply of the Son of God aroused 
the anger of a servant of the high-priest; and this ser- 
vant, though it was contrary to law for him to be present 
at such a trial, gave Jesus a terrible blow, saying, " An- 
swerest Thou the high-priest so?" In dwelling upon 
this incident of the Saviour's passion, the expositors oi. 
the Holy Scriptures cannot contain their indignation, and 
unanimously condemn this servant's impious and barbaric 
act. St. Cyprian, full of horror, exclaims, " The Creator 
who, in His goodness, made man out of nothing, receives 
a blow from one of His creatures — a blow from the hand 
which He had made out of dust !" Says St. Ephraim, 



JESUS IS QUESTIONED BY ANNAS. 127 

" The heavens trembled ; the angels were appalled, and 
covered their faces with their wings when they beheld 
a minister of iniquity strike the God of majesty." St. 
Augustine says, " If we consider who was the receiver 
of the blow, we will instinctively wish that the giver of 
it should be cast into flames or subjected to some other 
dreadful punishment ; andj indeed, how terrible a punish- 
ment could net the all-powerful Creator have inflicted, 
had He not wished to give us a lesson of patience ?" " O 
man!" exclaims St. Athanasius, "thou who thinkest it 
hard to bear patiently the wrongs done thee by thy fellow- 
man, imitate thy Lord, and reflect that if He, being God, 
allowed Himself, for love of thee, to be struck by a sinful 
man, surely thou shouldst bear with patience the injuries 
done thee by thy neighbor." 

In order to draw some spiritual profit from this con- 
sideration, we should ponder well these sayings of the 
Holy Fathers, thus awakening in our hearts a lively hor- 
ror of the great crime of the impious servant, and arous- 
ing in our minds an ardent admiration for the meekness 
and patience of Jesus Christ. 



Second Point. 

The insult which our Lord received in the house of 
Annas becomes more odious when we consider who that 
lut was that struck our Saviour. It is the opinion 
<n many that he was Malchus, whose ear, cut off a short 
time before in the Garden of Gethsemani, had been mi- 
raculously restored by Jesus. This circumstance added 
a particular malice to the crime of that insolent servant, 
and Jesus was forced to assume the accents of reproach. 
This is the only instance in the course of the passion in 



128 MEDITATIONS ON THE SUFFERINGS OF CHRIST. 

which our Saviour uttered a word of complaint : He bore 
in silence all the injustice of His judges, the perjury of 
the witnesses brought against Him, the barbarity of His 
scoffers, aud the cruelty of His executioners. But His 
reproach in this case was directed with a view not to con- 
found, but to correct and reform. Said Jesus, therefore, 
to the ingrate, "If I have spoken evil, give testimony of 
the evil : but if well, why strikest thou Me ?" 

" Great miracle," exclaims St. Ephraim, " to behold the 
meekness of the King of heaven and earth, who on being 
struck by a servant speaks to him with great kindness 
and reserve ! The servant strikes, and the Master suffers 
it ; the servant becomes furious, and the Master remains 
full of benignity." 

St. Simon of Cassia says, " The Lord and Judge of 
all mortals invites one of His creatures to find testimony 
against Him, and submits His life, His words, and His 
doctrine to the examination of that creature who is at 
liberty to judge Him and pronounce sentence against 
Him." 

Father Mathias Falier seeks to know why Jesus, while 
suffering with such admirable silence and patience all 
other injuries, resented this one ; and he discovers five 
reasons for the Saviour's action. First, the Redeemer 
did not wish to remain under the imputation of having 
been disrespectful towards the high-priest, of which of- 
fence the insolent servant had accused Him. Our Lord 
had always respected authority and commanded His fol- 
lowers to give priests, who were not always exemplary 
characters, the tribute of constant veneration and obedi- 
ence ; and on this occasion He broke silence in order to 
give one more emphatic and supreme confirmation of His 
doctrine on the duty of respect for authority. Secondly, 



JESUS IS QUESTIONED BY ANNAS. 129 

Jesus answered for the purpose of correcting that inso- 
lent servant who had dared, in a public tribunal, to strike 
a man who had not yet been found guilty ; though the 
ministers of justice were strictly forbidden to vent any 
private vengeance even on those who had been con- 
demned. Thirdly, Jesus gave that answer in order to 
instruct the high-priest who should not have permitted so 
brutal an outrage, especially in his presence. Fourthly, 
the Saviour wished to show His equanimity ; for if He 
had not answered, His silence would have been attributed 
to resentment ; on the other hand, His answer bore testi- 
mony to the perfect composure of His mind, notwith- 
standing the terrible affront which He had just received. 
Finally, He answered in order to show that He acknowl- 
edged the just rights of authority, and was willing, in 
case He were declared guilty, to submit to punishment. 

How many sublime lessons are to be learned from this 
consideration ! How admirably it instructs us in our 
duty of bearing injuries with patience! However great 
the injuries which we receive from our neighbor, they 
cannot be compared with those inflicted on our Saviour. 
Besides, let us think of the infinite difference between 
Jesus and us. He was innocent, we are guilty. He was 
the Son of God, we are the children of sin. He was in- 
sulted by His own creature, we are injured by our fellow- 
beings. Jesus was struck by a hand which He had 
formed out of dust, we are injured by hands which had 
perhaps previously benefited us. How great, therefore, 
should be our confusion at the thought of our own want 
of patience in bearing with those injuries which God is 
sometimes pleased to have us receive for our own spirit- 
ual advantage! 

It is true that Jesus answered ; but what a difference 



130 MEDITATIONS ON THE SUFFERINGS OF CHRIST. 

between His answer and ours ! He answered to correct 
one who had done evil, we answer with indignation and 
passion. He submitted Himself to the judgment of His 
enemies, we refuse to submit to the judgment of even 
our superiors. He asked to know why He had been 
struck, we ask in order to shame and confound those who 
have offended us. 

Let us, therefore, consider the difference that exists in 
this regard between our conduct and that of Jesus Christ, 
and resolve that by His life we shall henceforth model 



JESUS BEFOKE THE TRIBUNAL OF CAIPHAS. 131 



CONSIDERATION XXIII. 
Jesus before the Tribunal of Caiphas. 

" And Annas sent Him bound to Caiphas the high-priest." — JSt. 
John xviii. 24. 

Fikst Point. 

ANNAS could not pronounce sentence because he had 
no authority. Therefore, having satisfied his en- 
mity and, perhaps, breathed forth some of his long-enter- 
tained hatred for Jesns, he sent Him bound, that very 
night, to his son-in-law Caiphas, whose palace occupied a 
prominent position on the summit of Mount Sion, not 
far from the supper-room. Now, Caiphas was the one 
who had advised the Jews that it was expedient that one 
man should die for the salvation of the nation. He was 
high-priest of the synagogue and president of the Sanhe- 
drim ; to him, therefore, was reserved the decision of all 
controversies in matters of religion. But before pro- 
nouncing sentence in important cases, he was accustomed 
to have them examined by the ancients of the people, 
who composed the Sanhedrim. These malicious men had 
already plotted with Judas to compass the death of Jesus. 
Having learned of Jesus' capture, they assembled in the 
house of the pontiff and anxiously awaited their victim's 
arrival. Here let us notice the hour of this assemblage, 
which, as some expositors say, was after midnight ; but 
this did not concern the ancients. So bitterly did they 



132 MEDITATIONS ON THE SUFFERINGS OF CHRIST. 

hate Jesus, that, regardless of their age and the dignity 
of their office, they hesitated not to spend the whole 
night in the prosecution of His trial in order the sooner 
to effect His condemnation. 

The moment that Jesus was brought before them they 
were tilled with an infernal joy. But, carefully conceal- 
ing any external manifestation of their feelings, and wish- 
ing to maintain an appearance of equity, they proceeded 
to the trial, though in a manner as wicked and unjust as 
human depravity could well devise. They sought for 
false testimony against Him, that they might have a 
motive for sentencing Him to death. But notwithstand- 
ing all their efforts, they could find no one to accuse Him 
of even a fault. A few unfavorable words were uttered, 
but nothing could be concluded from them. At last two 
witnesses came forward and accused Him of having said 
that He could destroy the temple of God and in three 
days rebuild it. This stupid accusation seemed so im- 
portant to the high-priest, that, arising from his seat and 
assuming a tone of grave authority, he said to Jesus, 
" Answerest Thou nothing to the things which these wit- 
ness against Thee ?" (St. Matt. xxvi. 62.) Jesus did not 
reply, but kept a dignified silence : " But Jesus held His 
peace" (St. Matt, xxvi. 63). 

All the expositors of Scripture give grand explanations 
of Jesus' silence. St. Ambrose says, " He who needs no 
defence rightly keeps silence." Albertus Magnus adds 
that Jesus was silent because the accusations brought 
against Him involved no crime ; hence He had no need 
to defend Himself, the judges themselves being evidently 
convinced of the falseness of the accusers, and of the 
falsity of their accusations. Dionysius Carthusianus 
adduces several other reasons for the silence of Jesus : 



JESUS BEFOEE THE TRIBUNAL OF CA1PIIAS. 133 

First, Jesus wished to leave us an admirable example of 
meekness and patience. Secondly, He was silent because 
the charges against Him were false, and, consequently, un- 
worthy of reply. Thirdly, He was silent because He 
foresaw that if He should say anything, His enemies 
would avail themselves of it to devise new calumnies 
against Him. " From this silence," says Origen, " we 
should learn to despise false accusations, and to hold them 
as being unworthy of reply. For what need is there to 
vindicate ourselves from those things of which we have 
never been guilty, and from charges the falsity of which 
is acknowledged by the calumniators themselves ?" More- 
over, prudence teaches that it is far better to be silent 
than to speak without hope of good results, as was clearly 
the case with Jesus Christ before the court of Caiphas. 

Let, therefore, a wise and holy silence be the fruit of 
this consideration. 

Second Point. 

The more persistently Jesus kept silence, the more 
fiercely the pontiff burned with an insane rage and a 
hellish desire of entrapping and convicting Him. Hence 
he attempted in every way to provoke the Saviour to give 
some answer upon which he might found His conviction 
and condemnation. The same thoughts and desires ani- 
mated the ancients of the people, who composed the 
pontiff's diabolical council; and even the false witnesses 
were enraged at seeing themselves repulsed by Jesus' 
calm and dignified silence, which was a manifest and 
majestically disdainful refutation of all their malignant 
calumnies. At last, Caiphas, with a burst of insolent 
passion, exclaimed, " I adjure Thee by the living God, 



134 MEDITATIONS ON THE SUFFERINGS OF CHRIST. 

that Thou tell us if Thou be the Christ, the Son of God " 
(Matt. xxvi. 63). 

St. Jerome says : " Why, O impious priest ! dost thou 
thus adjure Him ? Is it in order to accuse Him, or is it 
in order to have grounds for believing in Him ? If thou 
adjurest that thou mayest accuse Him, thou art already 
sufficiently condemned by His silence. If thou adjurest 
in order to be able to believe in Him, why dost thou not 
believe what He tells thee % O most iniquitous priest ! " 

Having been adjured in the name of His Eternal 
Father, Jesus thought it proper to answer, and gave ut- 
terance to those brief words, "Thou hast said it" (Matt. 
xxvi. 64). Then turning to all the members of the 
Sanhedrim, He said, "Nevertheless, I say to you, here- 
after you shall see the Son of man sitting on the right 
hand of the power of God, and coming in the clouds of 
heaven ;" which was equivalent to saying, " Yes, I am, in 
truth, the Son of God, and you shall have to recognize 
Me as such when, at the end of the world, seated at the 
right hand of God the Father Almighty, I shall come to 
judge you." 

At these words the ancients of the people stopped their 
ears, and the chief priest rent his garments in sign of 
horror, saying, "He hath blasphemed: what further 
need have we of witnesses \ Behold, now you have heard 
the blasphemy. What think you V And they all an- 
swered, " He is guilty of death." 

The moment that this unjust sentence was pronounced, 
the executioners rushed upon Jesus and loaded Him with 
insults and injuries. Some afflicted His sacred humanity 
by cruel blows; others insulted His divinity by their 
derision and blasphemy. They spit in His face, they 
struck Him, they obliged Him to sit down on the base of 



JESUS BEFORE THE TRIBUNAL OF CAIPHAS. 135 

a column, and, having blindfolded Him, said, " Prophesy 
unto us, O Christ ; who is he that struck Thee ?" 

That celestial face, at sight of which the cherubim and 
seraphim bow down in reverence, was in a short time 
covered with disgusting spittle ! That divine countenance, 
a glance from which the very elements were wont to 
obey, became an object of derision ! That heavenly form, 
the sight of which, as Jesus hung agonizing on the cross, 
the sun itself could not withstand, became the laughing- 
stock of a vile rabble ! 

Notwithstanding all this, celestial rays still issued from 
the Saviour's countenance. "Hence the reason," says 
Father Lewis ISTavarino, " why the executioners blind- 
folded Him : they could not withstand the beauty of that 
face." 

But we who daily see images of Jesus Christ, — His 
sacred head crowned with thorns ; His face overspread 
with the pallor of death ; His body bruised and covered 
with blood ; His loving eyes dimmed and closing ; His 
pale lips quivering in the throes of death, and breathing 
forth a prayer to God for our pardon, — how can we look 
on those images and memorials of our suffering Saviour, 
with coldness and indifference? Our indifference is 
ascribable to want of due reflection. We do not reflect 
that these images picture forth the sufferings of the Son 
of God, sufferings to which He subjected Himself for 
love of us. 

Let us, therefore, meditate frequently on the sufferings 
of Jesus, and we shall learn to love Him in return for 
His boundless love for us. 



136 MEDITATIONS ON THE SUEEEKINGS OE CH1UST. 



CONSIDERATION XXIV. 
The Triple Denial of Peter. 

" Then he began to curse and to swear that he knew not the 
man. And immediately the cock crew." — St. Matt. xxvi. 74. 

Fiest Point. 

THE prince of the apostles, firm in his resolution to 
accompany his beloved Master, followed Him along 
the Way of Capture as far as the palace of Annas, and 
thence to that of Caiphas. But when he attempted to 
enter the palace of the pontiff, he was repulsed by those 
stationed at the door, and neither supplications nor vio- 
lence availed to secure him entrance. There was also 
another of Jesus' disciples among the throng. Some 
think he was St. John the Evangelist ; others, and per- 
haps with greater reason, believe that he was a citizen of 
Jerusalem, who secretly followed the doctrines of Jesus, 
and who was well known to Peter and the pontiff. This 
man had free access to the palace of Caiphas; and on 
seeing Peter driven from the door, he spoke a few words 
to the maid-servant, who was portress of the place, and 
she immediately admitted the apostle. But noticing Pe- 
ter's anxious and troubled features, her suspicions were 
aroused, and she said to him, "Art thou not also one of 
this man's disciples 2" Without the least hesitation Pe- 
ter answered, " I am not." Then he hastily brushed by 
the portress, so as not to be further questioned, and went 
towards the atrium, which he entered. In this apartment 



THE TRIPLE DENIAL OF PETER. 137 

were some of the high-priest's servants and ministers 
standing around a fire of coals warming themselves, for 
the night was cold. Peter advanced to the fire and was 
standing there warming himself when another maid-ser- 
vant caught sight of him. Having, perhaps on some 
former occasion, seen him in the company of Jesus, she 
recognized him ; and turning to those around her, she 
said, " This man also was with Jesus of Nazareth." All 
eyes were at oDce turned on Peter. Filled with fear, he 
denied his Master for the second time, confirming his 
denial with an oath : " And again he denied with an 
oath : That I know not the man" (St. Matt. xxvi. 72). 

The fall of Peter should be a warning for all Chris- 
tians. " What is man, 1 ' says St. Augustine, " without 
the grace of God % What was St. Peter, the great prince 
of the apostles, when he allowed himself to deny his Mas- 
ter ?" And then, seized with a spirit of holy fear, the 
same St. Augustine subjoins: "Behold, the firm column 
is violently shaken by the first blast of wind ! Where 
now is that firmness and resolution that promised so 
much ? Where now are all Peter's presumptuous prom- 
ises ? Behold, he who thought that he shared not the 
weakness of his brethren, denieth his Master and is over- 
come by the simple question of a poor maid-servant ! O 
Peter, who was she that questioned thee, that thou 
shouldst so soon deny thy beloved Master % Surely it 
was not one in high position and authority, who could 
have criminated thee and brought thee into peril, hadst 
thou confessed to being a disciple of Jesus ? The accuser 
was a poor maid-servant, a menial! And yet her accu- 
sation was sufficient to cause the fall of the prince of the 
apostles! Not, however, without a special dispensation 
of Providence," continues the holy doctor, " was Peter's 



138 MEDITATIONS ON THE SUFFERINGS OF C1IKIST. 

fall permitted. The one who was destined to forgive 
the sins of his brethren was permitted to be the first 
among them to fall, in order that, taught by his own ex- 
perience to know the depths of human frailty, he might 
repress all harshness in the judgment of others, and be- 
come more compassionate and merciful towards sinners." 
"O Peter, Peter!" another pious author exclaims, "but 
a short time ago thou didst say, ' Though I should die 
with Thee, I will not deny Thee.' Well, thou art not 
in danger of death ; the Koman governor examineth thee 
not ; the high priest questioneth thee not ; the soldiers 
menace thee not : and why, then, hast thou lost courage 
at the simple question of a poor maid-servant? Alas! 
how vainly man presumeth on his own strength, and into 
what depths he falleth unless sustained by the grace of 
God !" 

A woman caused Adam's fall in the terrestrial para- 
dise ; a woman caused the apostasy of Solomon, the wisest 
among men; and two servant-maids caused Peter to 
deny his Master. Now, if Adam, who was adorned with 
so many gifts of nature and of grace, fell ; if Solomon, 
who was "the wisest among men, apostatized ; if Peter, 
who was the most fervent among the apostles, denied his 
]\f ast er,— should we not fear for ourselves, and should we 
dare expose ourselves willingly to occasions of sin ? 

Let us attentively meditate on this most important 
point,— the necessity of avoiding dangerous occasions,— a 
subject worthy of our deepest study. 

Second Point. 
Peter had denied his Master twice, when again he was 
recognized by another maid-servant, who said to those 
that were standing around the fire, " This man also was 



THE TRIPLE DENIAL OF PETER. 139 

with Jesus of Nazareth." Then the whole company 
joined in the accusation, and they said to Peter, " Snrely 
thou also art one of them ; for even thy speech doth dis- 
cover thee." But Peter still continued firm in his de- 
nial, until a servant of the high priest and a kinsman of 
that Malchus whose ear was cut off in the Garden of 
Gethsemani said to him, " Did I not see thee in the gar- 
den with Him ?" Then Peter, according to the words of 
the Gospel, " began to curse and to swear that he knew 
not the man. And immediately the cock crew." At 
that moment Peter recollected the words of the Master, 
" Before the cock crow thou wilt deny Me thrice ;" and, 
filled with shame and remorse, he wept bitterly. Unlike 
Judas, Peter did not give himself up to despair ; but cor- 
responding to the impulses of divine grace, and placing 
all his confidence in the mercy of God, he glanced towards 
the corner where his Divine Master stood in chains. His 
glance was at once full of pity, sorrow, and intense re- 
morse, and manifestly conveyed a supplication that Jesus 
might read in His disciple's heart all his utter confusion 
and sincere repentance. Jesus returned the glance with 
a look so full of pity, tenderness, and mercy, that Peter's 
heart was melted at the thought of the enormity of his 
crime, and of the ineffable goodness of the God whom 
he had so ignobly denied. Overwhelmed by the awful 
burden of his sorrow, confusion, and remorse, and deem- 
ing himself no longer worthy to remain in his Master's 
presence, he immediately went out from the pontiff's 
Louse — that house which to him had proved so fatal — 
" And going forth he wept bitterly." 

The place where Peter, the prince of the apostles, re- 
tired to bewail his sin is still pointed out on Mount 
Siou ; and some pious authors say that he remained in 



140 MEDITATIONS ON THE SUFFERINGS OF CHRIST. 

that place all that night and during the next day, until 
his Divine Master had died upon the cross and atoned to 
the Eternal Father for His apostle's triple denial, and for 
all the sins of the world. 

First, let us consider with St. Bernard how great is 
human frailty. For, if St. Peter, who was so much be- 
loved and privileged by his Divine Master, could so 
grievously offend Him, how should we fear for ourselves, 
and how distrustful should we ever be of our own 
strength ? Secondly, we should learn never to despair of 
our salvation, no matter how numerous may be our sins, 
no matter how grievous may be their nature ; but ever 
to place our trust in the infinite mercy of God, as Peter 
did. He offended God most grievously, but trusted in 
the divine mercy, and thus not only regained the lost 
friendship of his Master, but was declared Prince of the 
Apostles, Yicar of Jesus Christ, and Universal Pastor of 
the faithful. 

In the conversion of St. Peter we see verified the con- 
soling truth that God has a special predilection for re- 
pentant sinners. This is well illustrated in the case of 
St. Peter, of St. Paul, of St. Mary Magdalene, and of 
many others. But let us remember that St. Peter washed 
away His sins by tears of sincere sorrow, one simple look 
from Jesus having been sufficient to bring him to repent- 
ance. Let us faithfully correspond to the impulses of 
divine grace, sorrowing truly over our past sins — not 
with a sorrow like that of Judas, but with a sorrow like 
that of Peter. 



JESUS' LAST NIGHT IN PKISON. 141 



CONSIDERATION XXY. 

Jesus passes His Last Night in Prison in the 
House of Caiphas. 

"And they blindfolded Him, and smote His face. . . . And 
blaspheming, many other things they said against .Him." — St. 
Lttke xxii. 64, 65. 

First Point. 

rpHE night was far advanced ; and the high-priests, the 
-*- ancients of the people, the scribes and Pharisees, 
feeling secure in their possession of the person of Jesus 
Christ, and having unanimously declared Him guilty of 
death, because He had said He was the Son of God, left 
the place and retired to their respective homes. The 
formal announcement of the sentence of death was thus 
postponed until the folio wing day ; and the patient Saviour, 
meantime, was left in the power of the brutal soldiery. 
These vile men, following the promptings of their evil 
passions and the suggestions of the devil, were only too 
glad to avail themselves of this new opportunity to pour 
out on Jesus Christ the full malice and hatred of their 
iniquitous hearts. The Evangelists pass over in silence 
the insults, ignominies and torments which were impiously 
liea pod upon Him during that last night in the palace of 
Caiphas. Not so, however, the expositors of the Holy 
Scripture, who, deducing their arguments from the 
words, " And blaspheming, many other things they said 



142 MEDITATIONS ON THE SUFFERINGS OF CHRIST. 

against Him," dwell at length upon the sufferings of the 
Redeemer during that night of His imprisonment. 

It is the opinion of Blessed Chembius of Spoleto that 
the Evangelists through very modesty refrained from 
mentioning all the horrors of the Saviour's prison, con- 
tenting themselves with revealing only what was suf- 
ficient to condemn forever the cruelty of the Jews, and 
to teach us the immensity of Jesus' love for us. Job 
gives in a few words all that the Evangelists pass over 
in silence, when, speaking in the person of Jesus Christ, 
he declares, " They are filled with my pains," that is to 
say, the enemies of Jesus insulted Him and injured Him, 
to the full extent of their power, or, in other words, their 
insults and injuries were limited only by the limitation 
of their power to insult and to injure — " They are filled 
with my pains" (Job xvi. 11). 

And truly, if the Jews still tortured Jesus when He 
hung agonizing on the cross, after having inflicted so 
many sufferings and torments upon Him, how much 
more savagely must they have vented their hatred, when, 
on that night, they had Him in their power for the first 
time, with no one to witness their barbarity, and with the 
fear that the judges might yet decree His liberation ! 

St. Jerome, the most learned Doctor of the Church, 
affirms that the sufferings undergone by Jesus on that 
memorable night, and all the insults and injuries heaped 
upon Him by the soldiers, especially during the three 
hours before daybreak, shall not be fully known in this 
world until the day of judgment, when God Himself 
shall reveal the extent of their cruelty and barbarity. 

O my loving Jesus ! how horrible for Thee must have 
been that night, each hour of which brought Thee suffer- 
ings of every kind — sufferings of mind, and sufferings of 



JESUS' LAST NIGHT IN PKISON. 143 

body. O my most amiable Saviour, how much Thou 
didst love mankind, that Thou wast willing, at such a 
cost of torment to Thyself, to redeem it ! O cold human 
heart, how canst thou remain without compassion at the 
sight of these atrocious torments undergone by Jesus for 
love of thee and for thy salvation ? For love of thee and 
for the remission of thy sins, He allowed Himself to be 
spit upon, to be struck, and to be made the laughing-stock 
of a vile rabble. O most amiable Saviour ! grant me a 
change of heart, a sincere sorrow for all my sins, and an 
humble resignation to Thy divine will in all things ; so 
that in all afflictions of spirit, with which it may please 
God to visit me, I may be able courageously to exclaim, 
" Since Jesus suffered so much for love of me, shall I not 
be willing to suffer something for love of Him ?" 

Second Point. 

In the Church of the Most Holy Sepulchre at Jerusa- 
lem is still preserved a broken column, called the " Col- 
umn of the Flagellation," which is the object of pious 
veneration, not only to Catholics, but also to heretics and 
schismatics, who visit it day and night. This column 
must not be confounded with the one to which our Lord 
was fastened in the Pretorium of Pontius Pilate, by order 
of that unjust judge, the latter column being preserved 
and exposed for the veneration of the faithful in the 
Church of St. Praxedes in Rome. 

But the column in the Church of the Holy Sepulchre 
well deserves the veneration it receives. For a pious 
tradition states that it formerly occupied a place in the 
court-yard of the palace of Caiphas, and that on the night 
of our Lord's imprisonment He was fastened to it and 



144 MEDITATIONS ON THE SUFFERINGS OF CHRIST. 

scourged, this brutal action not being the result of any 
judicial sentence, but the spontaneous outcome of the fe- 
rocity of the soldiery. Though the story of this scourg- 
ing is not taken from the evangelical text, yet it seems 
to receive some countenance from these words of St. 
Luke : "And the men that held Him, mocked Him, and 
struck Him.". St. Matthew adds that they gave Jesus 
blows, and that they spit upon Him. From these cir- 
cumstances several authors have inferred that Jesus was 
scourged, and so severely that there was not left a sound 
spot on His sacred body. Cornelius a Lapide, however, 
rejects this inference as being without sufficient Scriptural 
warrant, and without foundation in fact ; nor do we ven- 
ture to present it as being historically certain, but only 
as the pious opinion of some authors. 

St. Bernard tells us that the soldiers, having tired 
themselves with insulting and tormenting the Saviour, 
tied His hands behind His back, blindfolded Him, threw 
Him insolently on the ground, and then dragged Him 
by His beard and the hair of His sacred head into a dark 
and horrible prison. This prison, situated in the cellar 
of Caiphas' house, was a dark, loathsome, and fetid sink. 
There the soldiers left Jesus for the rest of the night — 
truly a night of anguish and torments for the Son of 
God! 

Let us go in spirit to that prison and contemplate its 
darkness and gloom, and the sufferings which the Re- 
deemer underwent there in His sacred body, and the 
anguish of His most afflicted soul. The prison was a 
cellar, damp, dirty, and fetid, without light and without 
air, and had never before been used as a prison for any 
criminal, no matter how guilty. The sacred body of 
Jesus was black and blue from the blows it had received, 



JESUS' LAST NIGHT IN PRISON. 145 

and some parts of it were lacerated. To the darkness of 
the prison there was added a still deeper darkness, induced 
by the bandage covering His eyes. Jesus' sacred hands 
had painfully struggled to His head to brush from His 
brow the matted and blood-stained hair, and to wipe from 
His face the disgusting spittle, and His hands were im- 
mediately tied behind His back. Thus bound and help- 
less, He was thrown on the ground amid all the filth of 
the place — thrown there like some foul thing to rot. 

But if the sufferings of His sacred body were grievous, 
still more grievous were the afflictions of His desolate 
soul, which was all of Him that now remained free ; but 
it was free only to intensify His torments. Before His 
mind rose up a vision of the past, the present, and the 
future; and in that threefold vision was nothing but 
anguish and torture. His capture in the. Garden of Geth- 
semani, His betrayal by Judas, the flight of the apostles, 
the fall in the torrent of Cedron, the blow received in 
the house of Annas, and all the other insults and injuries 
received there — all these passed before His mind so 
rapidly that they seemed to constitute one single image. 
The present offered Him a view of all the horrors of His 
prison — its cold, damp floor, its drear, dark walls, and its 
insupportable stench, together with all the other horrors 
that surrounded Him. The future displayed the passion 
through which He was to pass on the morrow, and op- 
pressed Him to such a degree that if His divinity had 
not sustained Him, His humanity would have succumbed 
under the weight of so much suffering, apprehension, and 
danger. 

Who would not be moved to pity at seeing any man 
reduced so low, no matter how guilty he might be, even 
though he were a bitter enemy ? Would not the feelings 
10 



146 MEDITATIONS ON THE SUFFERINGS OF CHRIST. 

of our common humanity awaken our compassion in such 
a case, and move us to pity the sad subject of so much 
misery ? 

Bnt the sufferer whom we have been contemplating in 
that horrible prison — His hands bound behind His back, 
His face covered with blood and befouled with spittle, 
His body wounded and torn — is our loving and merciful 
Redeemer, paying the debt of our sins to His Eternal 
Father. Therefore let us excite in our hearts those pious 
affections which a God so despised deserves from us. 



JESUS IS CONDEMNED TO DEATH. 147 



CONSIDERATION XXYI. 

Jesus is condemned to Death by the whole 
Sanhedrim. 

" And when morning was come, all the chief priests and an- 
cients of the people took counsel against Jesus, that they might 
put Him to death." — St. Matt, xsvii. 1. 

Eiest Point. 

AT last arrived the memorable day predicted by the 
prophets and so long and anxiously expected by 
the just, on which the Redemption of mankind was to be 
accomplished. It was a day of joy for both Jesus and 
His enemies : a day of joy for Jesus, because it was to 
put an end to His sufferings, give a beginning to His 
celestial kingdom, and place the seal of His death on 
human redemption, for which purpose He had come 
from heaven ; a day of joy for his enemies, because it 
was to witness the accomplishment of all their evil de- 
signs and secret conspiracies. What a dreadful contrast ! 
— Jesus wishes to die for His creatures, because He loves 
them ; His creatures wish Him to die, because they hate 
Him. 

Here, with Cornelius a Lapide, let us distinguish in 
Jesus Christ the superior and inferior faculties of His 
soul. Jesus certainly desired, and desired most ardently, 
the arrival of the hour in which He was to accomplish 



148 MEDITATIONS ON THE SUFFERINGS OF CHRIST. 

the Redemption of mankind ; but this joy dwelt only in 
the superior faculties of His soul. Recognizing by these 
faculties that it was God's will that He should die, His 
reason perfectly approved the divine decree, and His will 
perfectly conformed to it and eagerly desired its execu- 
tion ; but in the inferior faculties of His mind, through 
which He was susceptible of apprehension, fear, and dis- 
gust, He felt the full weight of His dolorous passion. 

At break of day, the chief priests and ancients of the 
people, impatient to carry their infernal work into exe- 
cution, gathered once more in the palace of Caiphas, 
having also invited the scribes and Pharisees — a vile sect 
with whom they could agree in only one thing, their 
common hatred of Jesus. 

Before this iniquitous assembly, the Saviour was or- 
dered to be brought ; but as they wished to give some 
semblance of justice to their proceedings, they ordered 
that He should be brought in unfettered. They had no 
further recourse to false testimony, but questioned Him 
concerning His life and person, hoping to entrap Him in 
His answers and thus to be enabled formally and publicly 
to announce the sentence of death which they had already 
secretly decreed. 

Let us pause to consider the malice of these judges. 
In the first place, St. Matthew says that they gathered 
together against Jesus ; not to discuss His cause, not to 
examine whether He was really guilty of the crimes im- 
puted to Him, not to hear His defence, but with the de- 
liberate purpose of condemning Him to death : " Took 
counsel against Jesus, that they might put Him to death" 
(St. Matt, xxvii. 1). In the second place, they con- 
demned Him, not because they wished to gain money, 
for instead of being paid, they themselves had paid out 






JESUS IS CONDEMNED TO DEATH. 149 

money to Judas, to the soldiers, and to the populace ; 
they condemned Him, not because the public security 
demanded His death, for they had feared that His arrest 
might cause a tumult, and for that reason they managed 
it with so much secrecy and precaution ; they condemned 
Him, not because they had received any personal insult 
from Him, but simply because He had performed mira- 
cles, by which, together with His exemplary life, He had 
won for Himself the love of the people. This was the 
reason why they wished to rid themselves of Him ; and, 
to attain their end, they affected great zeal for public 
justice. Under pretence that Jesus had violated its re- 
quirements, they resolved to try Him, endeavoring to 
invest the trial with some external formalities of legal 
procedure. In the third place, let us consider the many 
inconveniences to which they exposed themselves in order 
to accomplish their infamous designs. The Sanhedrim 
was composed of the ancients of the people, and it may 
well be presumed that some of them were advanced in 
years. Yet when our Lord was captured, their age did 
not hinder them from remaining up during the greater 
part of the night, their first examination of Jesus and the 
testimony of the false witnesses having consumed so long 
a time that it was very late when they retired to their 
homes. Notwithstanding all this, St. Matthew tells us, 
" When morning was come, all the chief priests and art- 
3 of the people took counsel against Jesus, that they 
might put Him to death." It mattered not whether the 
morning was cold and damp; it mattered not that they 
had slept but little during the night : they wished to give 
vent to their hatred of Jesus Christ, and that was a suffi- 
cient reason to induce them to surmount every difficulty 
unit to undertake any labor whatsoever. 



150 MEDITATIONS ON THE SUFFERINGS OF CHRIST. 

Alas' how many imitate in this respect the conduct of 
the enemies of Jesus Christ. When called to the dis- 
charge of some Christian duty, they immediately find ex- 
cuses under the head of regard for their dignity, or then- 
health, or their reputation. But when there is question 
of satisfying their appetites and passions, or of indulging 
in illicit pleasures, then there is no longer any regard for 
their property, their dignity, their riches, or their health. 
Careless of their duties to God, such persons are very 
mindful of their duties to society and the world ; negli- 
gent of their eternal salvation, they are careful concern- 
ing the care of the body; unconcerned about spiritual 
goods, they are very anxious about those which are purely 

temporal. , 

For our part, let us firmly resolve ever to hold in high 
esteem all spiritual goods, while despising those that are 
temporal, mortifying our body, practising works of mer- 
cy, and avoiding the vanities of the world. 

Second Point. 
Jesus was unfettered and led into the presence of His 
fudges, who began a new series of questions. First of 
all, they said to Him, "If Thou be the Christ tell us. 
Now on a former occasion when these very detainers 
had seen the wondrous works wrought by His bauds, and 
observed the multitudes that followed Him, they desired 
to know the secret of His strange power, and, gathering 
about Him one day in the temple, they besought Him to 
declare Himself, saying, " H Thou be the Christ, tell us. 
Jesus answered affirmatively, and His answer was treated 
as blasphemy, and Himself exposed to be stoned. Now 
that the same words were again addressed to Him, He 



JESUS IS CONDEMNED TO DEATH. 151 

immediately recognized their purpose and the malice that 
prompted them. Wherefore He reproved those evil 
men, saying : " If I shall tell you, you will not believe 
Me. And if I shall also ask you, you will not answer 
Me, nor let Me go. But hereafter the Son of man shall 
be sitting on the right hand of the power of God." 

~No sooner had this answer been given than the judges, 
to turn it into ridicule, repeated in tones of irony and 
bitter mockery, " Art Thou, then, the Son of God ?" To 
which Jesus answered, " You say that I am." By the 
ironical repetition of their question, the judges wished to 
reproach Jesus with His humble birth, His poverty, and 
His alleged crimes for which He had been brought before 
their tribunal. They might as well have said to Him : 
"What ! Thou the Son of God ? Thou, the son of a poor 
carpenter, born in a stable at Bethlehem, the smallest and 
poorest of all places in Judea ? What ! Thou the Son 
of God % Thou, who hast been educated in a shop, and 
who hast often besought Thy bread from door to door? 
Thou who hast no home, no bed whereon to repose, and 
who hast often conversed with publicans and sinners, 
and who hast even been accused of being possessed by 
devils ? Thou darest — Thou, a blasphemer and seducer 
— Thou darest call Thyself the Son of God ? 

Notwithstanding all the malice of this question, and 
all the hatred and mockery with which His enemies had 
invested it when they said, "Art Thou, then, the Son of 
God," He answered, " You say that I am." Hearing 
these words of the Saviour, the judges feigned an in- 
creased feeling of horror; some stopped their ears, others 
called on the Saviour to be silent. Then having con- 
sulted among themselves for a few moments, they said, 
in presence of all those assembled there, " What need we 



152 MEDITATIONS ON THE SUFFERINGS OF CHRIST. 

any further testimony ? For we ourselves have heard it 
from His own month." 

They then, with unanimous voice, condemned Him to 
death, and resolved to send Him to Pontius Pilate in or- 
der to have the sentence ratified and executed. 

Jesus Christ is condemned to death for having modest- 
ly and truthfully answered the questions put to Him. For 
having restored hearing to the deaf, sight to the blind, 
and life to the dead, He has to die the most cruel and 
barbarous death of the cross. Such is the usual reward 
which the world gives to those who attempt to reclaim it 
from its evil ways, who oppose its wicked maxims, and 
who show themselves to be true followers of the cross. 
But let all who are desirous of serving God still have 
confidence in His mercy, firmly believing that if, while 
on earth, they imitate the example of Jesus Christ, they 
will, in heaven, participate in His glory. 



JESUS IS BROUGHT BEFORE PILATE. 153 






CONSIDERATION' XXYIL 
Jesus Christ is brought before Pontius Pilate, 

"And the whole multitude of them rising up, led Him to 
Pilate." — St. Luke xxiii. 1. 



First Point. 

r I ^HE sun had already risen, and was spreading its 
-*- beneficent rays far and wide over the plains of 
Jndea, when, the sentence of death having been defini- 
tively pronounced, Jesus was again loaded with chains 
and dragged to the palace of Pontius Pilate. 

Pilate was the Roman governor of Jndea, to whom 
alone belonged the power, not only to execute the sen- 
tence of death, but also to judge whether those brought 
before his tribunal were deserving of such sentence. The 
members of the Sanhedrim, however, had arrogated to 
themselves the latter power, and they would, perhaps, 
have usurped the former, had they dared to do so ; but 
being subject to the Roman governor, and anxious to 
have Jesus suffer death on the cross, a mode of execution 
unknown among the Jews, they brought Him before Pon- 
tius Pilate. 

Here, with St. Bonaventure, let us consider how the 
soldiers effected this transfer of Jesus from one tribunal 
to another ; a transfer which was characterized by the 
utmost cruelty and barbarity. Jesus was treated worse 
than if He had been the vilest malefactor. " Come," the 



154 MEDITATIONS ON THE SUFFERINGS OF CHRIST. 

soldiers cried out to Him, " come with us, O thief, come 
to judgment ! Thy witchcraft shall to-day have an end ; 
now Thy wisdom shall appear, and Thy power shall be 
known." With these and other like blasphemous shouts 
resounding- in His ears, Jesus is dragged along with all 
the appearance of a guilty man — He, the innocent Lamb 
of God. 

It was published throughout the city during the night 
that Jesus had been apprehended, and that the Sanhe- 
drim had been twice convoked and had justly condemned 
Him to death ; consequently, a vast concourse of people 
assembled to witness His removal to the palace of Pilate. 
The chief priests, the leaders of Israel, and the ancients 
of the people, mingled with the crowds and conversed 
with them concerning Jesus, in order to incense them 
still more against Him. They also hoped that their 
presence, and that of the crowds that accompanied them, 
would strengthen the force of their accusations, and thus 
influence the Roman governor to ratify the sentence of 
death which they had pronounced against the Saviour. 

Arriving at the gate of Pilate's palace, they halted, be- 
cause, this being the place where criminals were con- 
demned, these hypocrites feared that by entering they 
should contaminate themselves and become irregular and 
legally unclean and consequently unfit to offer sacrifice 
or participate in the solemnities of the approaching feast 
of the Pasch. So they delivered Jesus to the guards 
with orders to bring Him before Pilate and to request 
that official, in their name and that of the Jewish people, 
to deign to expedite the trial by ratifying at once the 
sentence of death already pronounced. They added that 
the affair was one of urgent importance, and for this 
reason they themselves had come to the palace, though, 



JESUS IS BROUGHT BEFORE PILATE. 155 

acting in compliance with their own law, they dared not 
enter its portals. 

Alas ! how often is not a true picture of this odious 
hypocrisy of the priests and ancients of the people repro- 
duced among us in the conduct of those persons who do 
not hesitate to commit the gravest sins, provided they 
can do so secretly, while they affect a most scrupulous 
care in all religious matters of minor and merely external 
observance? Behold, those impious Jews felt no remorse 
of conscience, when they condemned an innocent man 
to death, when they unjustly incensed the people against 
their benefactor, and when they accused Him of crimes 
which they knew He had never committed ; but they 
affected to be very religious, nay, even scrupulous in 
points of legal observance. O impious and cruel men ! 
Low do you dare thus to deceive the people by your 
hypocrisy \ 

Let us now turn our attention from the Sanhedrim and 
take home the lesson to ourselves. We should ever re- 
member that that God who scrutinizes our hearts judges 
us not according to appearances, but according to our 
dispositions. Man may be deceived, but God never. 
Let us, therefore, always endeavor to perform our actions 
without ostentation, and without any regard to the esteem 
of men, but for the love of Jesus. 

Second Point. 

Jesus was presented before the tribunal of Pontius 
Pilate. There before His judge He stood, modest and 
humble; and though brought as a malefactor, there was 
no mark of shame on His brow, nor did 11^ show any 
sign of hatred or disdain towards those who accused Jlim. 



156 MEDITATIONS ON THE SUFFERINGS OF CHRIST. 

Seeing these things, Pilate formed a favorable opinion of 
Him and seemed inclined to pronounce words of acquit- 
tal rather than those of condemnation. But, not know- 
ing why Jesus had been brought before his tribunal, and 
wishing to comply with his duty as judge and also to ac- 
commodate himself to the delicate consciences of the 
chief priests and ancients of the people, Pilate resolved, 
since they would not come to him, to go out to them. 
Accordingly he did so, and said to them, " What accusa- 
tion bring you against this man ?" They became sullen 
and arrogantly answered, " If He were not a malefactor, 
we would not have delivered Him up to thee." 

" Foolish men !" exclaimed St. Chrysostom, " O foolish 
men ! why do you not tell what Pie has done? Why do 
you not name the crimes which you wish to allege against 
Him ? Behold, here are the men who had condemned 
Jesus to death, declaring Him guilty of many crimes ; 
and who, when suddenly summoned to bring forward their 
accusations, know not what to answer, and thus manifestly 
declare innocent the very one whom they had so wrong- 
fully condemned." 

Venerable Bede tells us that it was customary among 
the Jews to deliver up in irons to the Roman governor 
any one adjudged guilty of death, so that on seeing him, 
the judge might know the nature of the case and confirm 
the sentence against the criminal without further trial. 
But on the present occasion Pilate did not wish to con- 
form to this custom, and therefore it was that he asked 
the Jews to bring reasons why he should ratify the sen- 
tence against Jesus. Irritated at their insolent answer, 
and washing to humiliate them, he said, " Take Him you, 
and judge Him according to your law." But those 
malignant men longed to see Jesus on the cross, and so, 



JESUS IS BROUGHT BEFORE PILATE. 157 

restraining their feelings, they had recourse to their af- 
fected piety, and rejoined, "It is not lawful for us to 
put any man to death." 

Here St. Leo the Great cries ont, " By what law, O 
Jews, is it lawful to desire what is not lawful ?" Mean- 
time, Pilate insisted on knowing the reason why Jesus 
should be condemned. Whereupon they began to accuse 
Him, saying that He was a seducer of the people, that 
He had condemned the paying of tribute to Csesar, and 
that He had made Himself king. 

" O malicious and lying men !" exclaims St. Augustine, 
"go ask those who were once possessed by devils, and 
whom He freed from their cruel thrall ; go ask the lepers 
whom He cleansed ; go ask the blind to whom He re- 
stored sight ; go ask the dead whom He raised to life, — 
and they all will answer that He is no seducer ! Was it 
not He who taught to give to Csesar what was Caesar's, 
and to G-od what was God's? Did He not ever preach 
the duty of obedience to authority ? Nay, did not He 
Himself pay tribute to Csesar ?" 

On hearing those charges, Pontius Pilate went back into 
the hall, and calling Jesus, said, " Art Thou the king of 
the Jews ?" Jesus asked, " Sayest thou this thing of 
thyself, or have others told it thee of Me ?" Then Pilate, 
as if offended at this unexpected question, rejoined, " Am 
I a Jew ? Thy own nation and the chief priests have 
delivered Thee up to me : what hast Thou done ?" Jesus 
answered, " My kingdom is not of this world. If My 
kingdom were of this world, My servants would certainly 
strive that I should not be delivered to the Jews : but 
now My kingdom is not from hence." Surprised at these 
words, Pilate again addressed the Saviour, saying, " Art 
Thou a king then?" Jesus answered, " Thou sayest that 



158 MEDITATIONS ON THE SUFFERINGS OF CHRIST. 

I am a king. For this was I born, and for this came I 
into the world, that I should give testimony to the truth : 
every one that is of the truth heareth My voice." " What 
is truth?" rejoined Pilate, and without waiting for an 
answer, he went to the Jews who still stood, in anxious 
expectation at the door of the tribunal, and said to them, 
" I find no cause in Him." 

Thus the truth ever triumphs over falsehood, and 
comes to be respected even by those who do not follow 
it. We must, therefore, never lose courage, when we 
are calumniated and oppressed, because the time will 
come when our detractors shall be confounded, and our 
innocence shall be revealed to all. 



JESUS AT THE TRIBUNAL OF HEROD. 159 



CONSIDEBATION XXYIII. 
Jesus Christ at the Tribunal of Herod. 

"And Herod seeing Jesus, was very glad; for he was desirous 
of a long time to see Him, because he had heard many things of 
Him, and he hoped to see some sign wrought by Him." — St. Luke 
xxiii. 8. 

First Point. 

n^HE more the Jews endeavored to calumniate Jesus, 
-*- the more innocent He appeared in the eyes of Pilate ; 
wherefore it was that the latter again went out from the 
tribunal and frankly said to the chief priests and the mul- 
titude, "I find no cause in this man." Seeing their 
cause on the verge of being lost, the Jews redoubled 
their efforts to sustain it, inventing new calumnies, cry- 
ing out continually, becoming tumultuous, and saying, 
" This is a man who, throughout all Judea, from Galilee 
to Jerusalem, has incited a spirit of revolt, everywhere 
preaching dangerous doctrines to the people. Is He not, 
therefore, guilty of high treason, and deserving of death ?" 
At the mention of the name of Galilee, the Koman 
governor gave a start of surprise, and, as if the name of 
that province had furnished him a new clue to enable 
him to arrive at a just judgment, he asked if Jesus were 
really of Galilee. Being answered affirmatively, he im- 
mediately said that Jesus was under the jurisdiction of 
Herod. Now, Herod was king and tetrarch of Galilee, 
hut at that time he was sojourning in Jerusalem, where 
he occupied a palace, held court, and was surrounded by 
a retinue of soldiers. 



160 MEDITATIONS ON THE SUFFERINGS OF CHRIST. 

Pontius Pilate was glad of the opportunity thus afforded 
him of ridding himself of the importunities of the Jews, 
and, at the same time, of saving himself from pronounc- 
ing an unjust sentence on one whom he believed to be 
innocent. Therefore, he gave orders to have Jesus taken 
before Herod, who, hearing the accusations, might con- 
demn Him or acquit Him as he deemed proper. Pilate, 
without infringing on Herod's rights, could, indeed, have 
pronounced judgment, and under other circumstances 
would probably have done so, for just at that time he 
was on unfriendly terms with Herod ; but under the cir- 
cumstances he thought it better to sacrifice his self-love 
than to remain at variance with the Jews. 

As Herod's palace was not more than three hundred 
and fifty paces distant from Pilate's, the journey was not 
a long one. Nevertheless, it was a very painful one for 
the Redeemer, as it obliged Him to pass through the 
midst of an excited populace, aroused to a high degree of 
fury against Him by the chief priests and the ancients, 
who, forgetful of their age and dignity, mingled with 
the crowds that followed the Saviour and urged them in 
every way to heap insults upon Him. 

Herod did not receive Jesus with an air of malignity 
and scorn, as Annas and Caiphas had done ; neither did 
he, like Pilate, assume the grave and majestic air of a 
judge: but he received Him in a pleased and courteous 
manner, for he had long desired to see Him and to con- 
verse with Him. Herod did not wish to treat with Jesus 
of the affairs of his soul, or of the business of his king- 
dom, and he did not wish to hear words of eternal life ; 
but he hoped to see Him perform some miracle, for he 
had heard much of Christ's wondrous works, and looked 
upon Him as a skilful juggler or powerful magician. 



JESUS AT THE TRIBUNAL OF HEROD. 161 

A pious author, commenting on this passage of the 
Gospel, says : " Who ever looked upon Jesus and did not 
rejoice % Abraham had desired to see Him ; he saw Him 
in spirit and was rejoiced. Simeon had also longed to 
see Him ; he saw Him and was filled with exceeding joy. 
Zacheus had shown a great desire to see Him, and from 
the branches of a sycamore tree he beheld Him, and, 
touched by divine grace, he became assured of salvation. 
The Gentiles desired to behold Him ; and it was given 
them to behold Him and to hear a voice from heaven say- 
ing, in answer to His prayer that His Father's name 
might be glorified, ' I have glorified it, and I will glorify 
it again.' How often during His infancy had the afflicted 
and the unfortunate of Galilee — as was revealed to St. 
Bridget — said to one another, 'Let us go over and see 
the Son of Mary, for a look upon His face may bring us 
peace and consolation.' Finally, Herod saw Him, and 
he, too, rejoiced ; but how different was his joy, and how 
vain ! For, being deemed unworthy, he did not receive 
the favor he desired." 



Second Point. 

When Herod saw Jesus standing before him with down- 
cast eyes, like a criminal who fears the rigors of justice, 
he assumed a most agreeable and insinuating manner, 
and, encouraging Him to be of good heart and to fear 
not, he began to question Him at length. " And he ques- 
tioned Him in many words" (St. Luke xxiii. 9). On what 
subjects these questions turned, the Evangelists do not 
tell us. But many ascetic writers believe that Herod 
addressed Jesus somewhat after the following manner: 
" I have heard that Thou hast power to change water 
11 



162 MEDITATIONS ON THE SUFFERINGS OF CHRIST. 

into wine: wilt Thou let me witness a display of tins 
wondrous power? Many have told me that Thou canst 
multiply bread, and I am Yery desirous of seeing Thee 
perform such a prodigy. I have also heard that Thou 
canst walk upon the water, and I wish to see so wondrous 
a performance." But Jesus answered nothing. " Why," 
says Theophylactus, " should Jesus answer him, him who 
did not question in order to learn?" Entimius adds: 
" Jesus did not answer, because He knew well that Herod 
wished to see a prodigy ; not to derive spiritual profit 
from it, but simply to satisfy his curiosity." St. Gregory 
the Great says that the Redeemer kept silence, because 
He deemed it better to be despised than to listen to praise 
from infidel lips. 

Herod attributed our Saviour's silence to quite other 
causes, and thinking it was the result of fear, he still con- 
tinued to question in a tone of great affability. He said, 
" Thou art, perhaps, the cue whom my father sought so 
eagerly to put to death, and on whose account, in conse- 
quence, so many little children were slain ? Thou art, 
perhaps, He that raised Lazarus to life ; He whom so 
many disciples follow ? Tell me, art Thou the man who 
is said to have performed miracles without number ? But 
why dost Thou not perforin some wonder in my presence, 
that I may believe in those that I did not see V 9 But 
Jesus answered nothing. 

At last Herod knew that Jesus' silence did not spring 
from fear, but was the result of a settled purpose and an 
utter indifference to the questions asked. He, therefore, 
felt himself highly offended, and, in his wrath he would 
have perhaps at once condemned the Saviour to the most 
excruciating tortures, had he not feared that, by so doing, 
he would only lower his own dignity and give greater 



JESUS AT THE TRIBUNAL OP HEROD. 163 

publicity to the affront which he conceived had been 
given him by Jesus' disdainful silence. So dissembling 
his feelings, and restraining any manifestation of anger, 
he affected to treat our Lord as a madman, thinking that 
he could save his dignity better thus than by any violent 
expression of his wrath. 

The chief priests, the ancients of the people, and the 
scribes and Pharisees perceived at once the change that 
had come over Herod. While they saw him treating 
Jesus with kindness, they feared to begin their accusa- 
tions. But they knew that the Saviour, if admitted to be 
a madman, might escape the sentence of death ; so they 
rose up, and began to give their reasons for bringing Him 
into court. They repeated all the calumnies which had 
been uttered against Jesus in Pilate's tribunal, and, add- 
ing a great many more, they strove in every way to estab- 
lish His sanity, and to prove that He was certainly de- 
serving of death. Though convinced of His sanity, 
Herod still affected to believe Him a madman, and openly 
mocked Him and treated Him as such. " And Herod 
with his army set Him at naught : and mocked Him, put- 
ting on Him a white garment, and sent Him back to Pilate" 
(St. Luke xxiii. 11). 

We should learn from this consideration how to keep 
silence when confronted by those who injure, calumniate, 
or persecute us. If we keep a dignified silence in presence 
of such persons, we shall obtain, not only great merit be- 
fore God, but we shall be esteemed wise and prudent 
men, and maintain our own peace of heart, which is so 
easily lost when we attempt to answer insults ; and if we 
do not succeed by thus acting, in obtaining the conversion 
of our enemies, our silence will, at least, be to them a 
60urcc of confusion and reproach. 



164 MEDITATIONS ON THE SUFFERINGS OF CHRIST. 



CONSIDERATION XXIX. 

Jesus is sent back to Pontius Pilate, and Barab- 
bas is preferred before Him. 

"They therefore being gathered together, Pilate said: Whom 
will you that I release to you, Barabbas, or Jesus that is called 
Christ ?"— St. Matt, xxvii. 17. 

First Point. 

"When Jesus left Herod's palace, clothed in a white 
garment, and surrounded by soldiers, the multitude be- 
gan at once to cry out against Him, insulting, cursing, 
and blaspheming Him. Their wild cries were to Pilate 
the first announcement of the Redeemer's return ; and in 
a few moments he again saw Jesus standing before his 
judgment-seat, but this time clothed in a white garment, 
mocked, and treated as a madman. Pilate at first thought 
that Herod had found Jesus guilty, and had sent Him 
back to have the sentence of death executed. On learn- 
ing to the contrary, He again began to examine Jesus, no 
longer in private, but in the presence of all, the chief 
priests, the ancients of the people, and the scribes and 
Pharisees having been duly summoned to assist at the 
examination. But once more the trial resulted favorably 
for the accused, and Pilate pronounced sentence as fol- 
lows: 

" You have brought this Man before me, representing 
Him to be a blasphemer and seducer of the people, one 
who tried to withdraw them from allegiance to Caesar. I 
privately questioned Him, and I have now examined 



BARABBAS PREFERRED BEFORE JESUS. 165 

Him publicly in your presence; and yet I cannot find 
Him guilty of a crime deserving of death. Moreover, 
not wishing to trust entirely to my own judgment in this 
matter, as soon as I heard that He is a Galilean, I sent 
Him for examination to Herod, whose subject He is. 
You yourselves accompanied Him to the palace and 
brought against Him all the accusations that could lead 
to His condemnation. But neither did Herod find in 
Him any crimes deserving of capital punishment ; nay, 
so far from considering Him a seducer of the people and 
one capable of exciting revolution, He adjudged Him in- 
sane and sent Him back to me without passing sentence 
of death upon Him. Wherefore I cannot do otherwise 
than declare Him innocent. However, in order to ac- 
commodate myself in some measure to your desires, I 
will have Him punished for those imprudences which He 
may have accidentally committed, and then I will release 
Him." "I will chastise Him therefore and release Him" 
(St. Luke xxiii. 16). 

This sentence of Pontius Pilate, which condemned the 
innocent Jesus, simply to please those who calumniated 
Him, was more than unjust and impious ; and yet it did 
not satisfy the Jews, but only made them more eager to 
invent new calumnies against Jesus that they might ob- 
tain the gratification of their desire of seeing Him on the 
cross. 

The chief priests and the ancients renewed their accu- 
sations, but Jesus made them no answer. "And the 
chief priests accused Him in many things" (St. Mark xv. 
3). " And when He was accused by the chief priests and 
ancients, He answered nothing" (St. Matt, xxvii. 12). He 
who had modestly answered Pontius Pilate did not deign 
to give one word in answer to the chief priests and 



166 MEDITATIONS ON THE SUFFERINGS OF CHRIST. 

ancients of the people. He answered Pilate, because 
he had questioned to learn the truth ; He answered not 
the chief priests and ancients, because they knew Him to 
be innocent, yet they accused Him of being guilty. They, 
therefore, did not deserve an answer, for those never de- 
serve any answer who attempt to contradict the truth. 

Let us consider our Lord in this threefold position : 
first, as exposed to the insults and outrages of the Jewish 
people; secondly, as declared innocent by Pilate, yet 
condemned to undergo chastisement; thirdly, as con- 
demned, though innocent, by the chief priests and an- 
cients, Jesus meanwhile answering nothing. 

When we find ourselves in a similar situation, insulted, 
and condemned to suffer innocently, let us remember the 
beautiful evangelical teaching, that in order to live pious- 
ly in Christ we must be willing to suffer persecution. 



Second Point. 

While the Jews, fearing that Jesus would be acquitted, 
trembled with rage and gnashed their teeth, Pilate re- 
membered a stipulation which existed between the Jews 
and Romans, and which provided that, on the feast of 
the Pasch, the Jews might obtain the release of any one 
criminal under capital sentence. Taking advantage of 
this provision of the law, Pilate thought to save Jesus at 
the request of the Jews themselves. For he wished to 
save Jesns if not on the ground of innocence, at least on 
the ground of a favor granted Him. 

Now, a great malefactor named Barabbas was at that 
time in prison. Besides being a notorious robber, this 
man had been a leader in an insurrection against the gov- 
ernment, and in a tumult had killed a man. For this 
crime he had been condemned to death, and his execu- 



BARABBAS PREFERRED BEFORE JESUS. 167 

tion was expected from day to day. On account of his 
numerous crimes Barabbas was justly deemed a danger- 
ous member of society, and all were consequently anxious 
for his execution. Pilate felt almost certain that the 
Jews would never prefer Barabbas before Jesus ; so he 
said to them, "Whom will you that I release to you, 
Barabbas, or Jesus that is called Christ V 

For a time the Jewish people wavered in their choice; 
perhaps many among them shuddered with horror at this 
impious proposal of the judge. For though they were 
incensed against Jesus, and, as it were, blinded by the 
wicked and false insinuations of their leaders, yet their 
aversion to Barabbas was so great that few could ask for 
the liberation of a man who was hated by the whole na- 
tion as an infamous robber, a seditious and violent per- 
son, and a murderer. 

But the chief priests and members of the Sanhedrim 
hastened here and there among the people, eagerly urging 
them to call for the release of Barabbas. They were de- 
ceived by their unscrupulous leaders, and, after a confused 
murmur which agitated the whole multitude, they gave 
vent to this awful cry : " Away with this Man, and re- 
lease unto us Barabbas." 

" O insane rage !" exclaims St. Augustine, " which dic- 
tates the release of Barabbas rather than of Jesus ; which 
commands the execution of Him who raises the dead to 
life, and the liberation of a robber that he may with im- 
punity go forth to put the living to death. 

Origen observes that if the Jews had only asked for 
the release of Barabbas without asking for the execution 
of Jesus, it would have been a great impiety; for it 
would seem that while the} 7 were not concerned about a 
just man grossly calumniated, they were solicitous to 
save a guilty man convicted of murder. But to ask for 



168 MEDITATIONS ON THE SUFFERINGS OF CHRIST. 

the release of a robber and murderer, and at the same 
time to demand clamorously the crucifixion of the Just — 
what words are adequate to express the enormity of such 
a crime! This horrible crime becomes more horrible 
when we consider who this just Man was, before whom 
Barabbas was preferred. His very name was so vener- 
able, and resounded so sweetly upon the car, that the 
Jews themselves dared not pronounce it, but said, '" Away 
with this Man." Yes, Barabbas was preferred before 
Jesus — Jesus, who is the Son of God, consubstantial with 
the Eternal Father, the Creator of heaven and earth, the 
Redeemer of mankind, the long-desired Messias, the 
Consoler of the afflicted, the Helper of the helpless and 
the poor, — in a word, Jesus, who was the tender Father 
and amiable Brother of that ungrateful people, saw Ba- 
rabbas preferred before Him. 

O my most amiable Saviour! to how many humilia- 
tions and grievances wast Thou not subjected ! A disci- 
ple betrayed Thee with a hiss ; a servant who had re- 
ceived a signal favor at Thy hands dared deal Thy sacred 
face a blow ; the soldiers spit in Thy face ; the priests 
called Thee a blasphemer ; the pontiff judged Thee guilty 
of death ; Herod mocked Thee as a fool ; Pilate declared 
Thee innocent, and forthwith ordered Thee to be 
scourged ; and the people prefer Barabbas before Thee. 
Shall not I, then, who glory to be called Thy disciple, 
Thy servant, be willing to bear patiently for Thy love a 
trifling offence, an insulting word ? Shall I not be pa- 
tient when others are preferred before me, and myself 
but little considered ? O Jesus ! humble my pride ; 
grant me the grace to know my own nothingness, and in 
all the adversities of this life constantly to imitate Thee 
in the practice of patience, humility, and resignation. 



THE PEOPLE CLAMOR FOR JESUS' DEATH. 169 



CONSIDEKATION XXX. 

The People continue to ask the Deliverance of 
Barabbas and the Death of Jesus. 

" Pilate saith to them: "What shall I do, then, with Jesus that is 
called Christ? They say all: Let Him he crucified." — St. Matt. 
xxvii. 22. 

First Point. 

AMAZED at hearing the Jews openly declare them- 
selves in favor of Barabbas, Pilate again made a 
faint attempt to champion the cause of Jesus, and turn- 
ing to the crowd, said, in reproachful tones, " You have 
requested the release of Barabbas, and I grant it ; but 
what shall I do with Jesus that is called Christ?" This 
was as if Pilate had said : " Since you are not ashamed 
to ask for the release of a robber and an assassin, what do 
you wish me to do with this just and generous Man, who 
is called the Anointed of the Lord, the King of the Jews ?" 
But the more Pilate attempted to favor Jesus, the more 
enraged the Jews became, and .cried out with a loud 
voice, " Let Him be crucified, let Him be crucified." 

Pilate's amazement grew into anger as he witnessed 
how the Jews, who a few moments before had so shame- 
lessly declared in favor of Barabbas, were still persisting 
in their demands for the Saviour's condemnation, and he, 
therefore, again turned to them and said, "Why, what 
evil hath He done ? I find no cause in Him." But in 
vain Pilate tried to direct their minds towards a course 



170 MEDITATIONS ON THE SUFFERINGS OF CHRIST. 

of justice ; they grew more persistent, and cried still 
louder for the Redeemer's death : " But they cried out 
the more, saying : Let Him be crucified." 

" Only six days before," observes a pious author, 
" this same people cried out, ' Blessed is He that cometh 
in the name of the Lord ! Hosanna to the Son of David ! 
Glory and honor to Him!' And now they cry, ' Let 
Him be crucified, let Him be crucified ! ' " During those 
six days Jesus had unceasingly preached His heavenly 
doctrine to that same people. What crime did He com- 
mit, that they now cry out, " Let Him be crucified " ? 

But it is useless to seek to discover the motives of men 
actuated by passion, and no longer under the restraint of 
their conscience. Let us, therefore, tarn our thoughts 
to ourselves, and apply the meaning of this evangelical 
passage to our own souls. Do not we, too, often offend 
God, and thus prefer Barabbas to Jesus? Nay, when 
we commit sin, do we not prefer the very dirt to Jesus? 
The impulses of grace never cease to touch our hearts, 
even when we are most violently tempted by the world, 
the flesh, and the devil. At such a moment there goes 
on within us a conflict like that which took place before 
the tribunal of Pilate. At such a moment we have a 
choice to make ; we have to choose between the state of 
grace and the state of sin, between God and Satan, be- 
tween our own peace of mind and the slavery of hell. 
For grace and sin, God and Satan, peace of conscience 
and slavery to sin, cannot exist together in the same soul. 
Either God or Satan must depart, and we have to choose 
between them : " Whom will you that I release to you, 
Barabbas, or Jesus that is called Christ ?" 

In the hour of temptation, before making our choice, 
wo should reflect on what is proposed to us : heaven on 



THE PEOPLE CLAMOR FOR JESUS 1 DEATH. 171 

the one hand, hell on the other; God offers His grace 
and favor, the devil offers slavery and torments. Let ns 
also reflect on the peace of soul which we invariably en- 
joy as long as we remain in the state of grace, and on the 
remorse and agitation of mind which those suffer who 
are so unfortunate as to fall into sin. 

If, in the hour of temptation, we make those wise re- 
flections, we shall choose better than did the Jews, and 
thus triumph over our common enemy. A firm resolu- 
tion to do so should be the fruit of this consideration. 



Second Point. 

Seeing himself deceived in his expectations of liberat- 
ing Jesus, and fearing, perhaps, a popular uprising, Pilate 
dared no longer persist in his course and forthwith re- 
leased Barabbas. But while yielding to the seditious im- 
portunities of the Jews, he was not without experiencing 
great agitation of mind ; for, during the progress of the 
trial his wife sent him a message saying, "Have thou 
nothing to do with this just Man. For I have suf- 
fered many things this day in a dream because of Him." 
This advice served to increase his mental agitation, yet 
he did not resolve to adhere firmly to the side of justice. 
However, he did glorify the truth, for he confessed that 
he condemned the innocent. This confession he made 
publicly ; he ordered his servants to bring water to him, 
and, washing his hands in the presence of all, said, " I am 
innocent of the blood of this just Man : look ye to it," — 
as if the washing of his hands and his protestation against 
the violence of the Jews could excuse the manifest in- 
justice of his action in allowing the condemnation of an 
innocent man. In answer to Pilate the Jews cried out 



172 MEDITATIONS ON THE SUFFERINGS OF CHRIST. 

with a loud voice, " His blood be upon us and upon our 
children." 

This horrible imprecation, which has been so com- 
pletely and severely fulfilled, did not remove all doubts 
and remorse froin Pilate's mind, yet it served in a mea- 
sure to moderate his fears end regrets. But the more 
Pilate was convinced of the innocence of Jesus and the 
malignity of the Jews, the more guilty he was before 
God and the tribunal of his own conscience. It availed 
him not to declare that Jesus was innocent and just ; still 
less did it avail him to wash his hands before the people : 
because, as Eusebius Emissenus declares, the Roman gov- 
ernor became guilty of the death of Jesus by judicially 
delivering Him into the hands of those who wished to 
condemn Him unjustly. 

We should not, however, dwell too much on the injus- 
tice of Pilate, but rather on the madness of the Jews, 
and on the imprecation which they pronounced against 
themselves, the horror of both of which is so great as to 
be incapable of expression, or even of conception. And 
yet if we compare ourselves with the Jews, we shall find 
that we are even more guilty than they. It is certain 
that they did not know either what they were saying or 
what they were doing, because they were deceived by 
their leaders, the chief priests and ancients of the people, 
and finally believed that Jesus Christ was deserving of 
death. Neither did they recognize Him as the Son of 
God ; for if they had recognized Him as such, certainly, 
as St. Paul says, they would not have crucified Him. 
But we are children of the Church ; we are illumined by 
the splendor of the Gospel ; we confess Jesus Christ to 
be true God and true man ; we believe in His real pres- 
ence in the Holy Eucharist ; instead of being instigated 



THE PEOPLE CLAMOR EOE JESUS' DEATH. 173 

by our priests to hate and reject Him, we are earnestly 
invited to love and venerate Him ; we firmly believe 
that that God whom we offend knows our most secret 
thoughts, and rewards or punishes us according to our 
works, — we believe all these things, and yet we dare 
offend Him, and even grievously, and dare remain in the 
state of mortal sin with the greatest indifference. We 
should not, therefore, so much wonder at this action of 
the Jews, who did not recognize Jesus as God, but who, 
on the contrary, believed Him deserving of death. 

Let us deplore our ingratitude from the bottom of our 
hearts, and ask pardon for having, notwithstanding all 
our graces and the teachings of our Church, so often 
offended against our belief. 



174 MEDITATIONS ON THE SUFFERINGS OF CHRIST. 



CONSIDEEATIOK XXXI. 
Jesus is scourged at the Pillar. 

" Then therefore Pilate took Jesus, and scourged Him."— St. 
John xix. 1. 

First Point. 

THE passion of Jesus Christ was most bitter in all its 
stages, but the excess of that bitterness can be 
realized only by those who meditate profoundly on its 
particular incidents, among which there are few more 
touching than that of the scourging at the pillar. Never- 
theless, the Evangelists pass over in silence all the im- 
pious circumstances connected with it, and the barbarity 
of the manner of its execution, and content themselves 
with saying that Pilate, seeing that he could not convince 
the Jews of Jesus' innocence, caused Him to be scourged, 
hoping that this cruel spectacle might, perhaps, move 
them to compassion. " Then therefore Pilate took Jesus, 
and scourged Him." 

The Evangelists also relate the crowning of our Saviour 
with thorns, and the crucifixion, two most painful events 
in the passion, with the same simplicity and conciseness, 
leaving it to the piety of the Christian to realize the 
atrocity of the Saviour's sufferings. 

On the other hand, all the holy Fathers, and ascetic 
writers generally, express the greatest horror at the cruel- 
ties perpetrated against our Lord during this dreadful 



Jp;SUS IS SCOURGED AT THE PILLAR. 175 

scourging. Some invoke the angels, begging them to 
descend from heaven to cover the naked form of their 
Divine Master exposed to the lash ; others inveigh against 
the impious judge who condemned to so cruel a torture 
a Man whom a little while before he had pronounced in- 
nocent of all crime ; others apostrophize the cruel execu- 
tioners, praying them to spare their patient "Victim and 
their Benefactor ; other writers dwell on the sufferings of 
the Mother of Jesus, who was present during the terrible 
scene ; others assert that the sufferings undergone by the 
Saviour at the pillar were a punishment of mankind's 
sins of sensuality, — while all agree in stating that the 
scourging of our Saviour at the pillar was one of the 
most cruel and barbarous incidents of His extremely 
bitter passion. Let us endeavor to bring up before our 
minds a lively picture of this sanguinary tragedy in order 
to awaken in our hearts a deep sense of compassion for 
the sufferings of our Eeedemer. 

There was an atrium, or court-yard, at the entrance of 
Pilate's tribunal, and in this court-yard stood a marble 
column, rising only a few spans above the ground. A 
criminal condemned to be scourged was bound to this 
column by means of ropes passed around the lower 
portion of his body, his hands were tied behind his 
back, and more than half his person was exposed to the 
lash. 

Scourging was an infamous torture inflicted only on 
slaves condemned to capital punishment, and was con- 
sidered so atrocious that the Jews, a civilized people, or 
at least a people less barbarous than their contemporaries, 
in the infliction of this punishment were limited by law 
to thirty-nine lashes. Among the Romans, a cruel and 
sanguinary people, there was no limit assigned, but the 



176 MEDITATIONS ON THE SUFFERINGS OF CHRIST. 

number of lashes to be inflicted was regulated by the 
cruelty or humanity of the judge, and sometimes the 
matter was left entirely to the discretion of the execu- 
tioner. 

Jesus, therefore, having been condemned to be scourged, 
was dragged by the executioners to the court-yard of the 
tribunal, where a great crowd had assembled to witness 
the inhuman spectacle. Arrived on the ground, Jesus 
divested Himself of His robes, including the white gar- 
ment which Herod had put on Him, and His own proper 
vesture. Then without any compulsion — as was revealed 
to St. Bridget — He presented His hands to the execution- 
ers, to have them tied, and offered Himself to be fastened 
to the pillar. 

When Jesus had been securely bound to the pillar, the 
executioners armed themselves with thorny switches, 
heavy thongs, knotted ropes, iron chains, and other im- 
plements suggested to them by their diabolical malice, 
and the inhuman and impious work began. According 
to St. Jerome, the executioners were six in number; but 
according to what was revealed to St. Mary Magdalene, 
there were as many as thirty, and they divided their in- 
human labor among them, so that when one became tired 
another took his place. Now, if the executioners became 
tired, what must have been the intensity of the suffering 
of their victim ! Though authors differ as to the number 
of stripes received by our Lord, all compute them to have 
amounted to several thousand, and St. Bona venture places 
their number at five thousand. Who, then, can conceive 
the amount of torture inflicted on our Lord ? At every 
blow a fresh cut is made in that delicate body, until it is 
covered with wounds and pieces of bleeding flesh fall to 
the ground. In fact, many authors claim that our Lord 



JESUS IS SCOURGED AT THE PILLAR. 177 

was so cruelly scourged that His bones could be num- 
bered. 

Jjet ns meditate on this cruel scourging of our Kedeemer 
and excite in our hearts a deep sorrow for our sins. 

Second Point. 

In order to form a faint idea of the nature of this 
terrible scourging, let us imagine that we, together 
with a great multitude, are present as an ordinary man, 
a stranger, who has committed some great crime, is led 
out, fastened to a pillar, and subjected to this cruel pun- 
ishment. 

Behold ! the executioners arm themselves with thorny 
rods, heavy thongs, and other instruments of torture, and 
the bloody work begins. They shower down blows upon 
their helpless victim until great ridges of bruised and 
bleeding flesh are formed on his breast, shoulders, hands, 
arms, and other parts of his body, which soon becomes 
one bleeding mass ; and finally the flesh of the poor victim 
is torn open with hooks of iron, till his bones can be num- 
bered. Who could witness such a spectacle and remain 
unmoved % Nay, who would not feel his heart swell 
with compassion for a poor, unhappy creature like the 
one whose sufferings we have described, even though the 
unfortunate wretch were the greatest of criminals or the 
bitterest of enemies ? 

But if a torture so cruel and barbarons inflicted on a 
mere man moves us to compassion, shall we experience 
no such emotion at the remembrance of its infliction upon 
the sacred body of Jesus Christ, who suffered all this, and 
still more, for love of us and for our salvation ? " O 
man!" cries St. Augustine, "learn how much thou hast 



178 MEDITATIONS ON THE SUFFERINGS OF CHRIST. 

cost, and how much thou dost owe thy Redeemer, Thou 
hast cost the life of a God, and thou dost owe thy life to 
Him. Behold, He is scourged for thee — He who is Holi- 
ness itself ! The Holy One of God is scourged for the 
unholy and impious !" 

" Draw near," exclaims St. Ephraiin, " all you that 
have been redeemed by the precious blood of the Lamb 
of God, and consider how our merciful Redeemer per- 
mitted Himself to be betrayed, struck, spit upon, derided, 
and scourged for us miserable sinners who have truly 
deserved such tortures in punishment of our sins." 

Meanwhile the executioners, urged on by the cruel 
Jews who at the sight of blood had grown more ferocious 
than tigers and promised to reward the scourgers accord- 
ing to the degree of their barbarity, bent to their brutal 
work with ever-i::creasing fury, redoubling strokes on 
str< ;kes, and wounds on wounds on the sacred body of the 
Saviour. At last, as St. Augustine relates, a Roman 
soldier, moved to compassion and horror at the sight of 
such brutal butchery, raising his voice, cried out, " Hold ! 
Do you mean to kill a Man who has not yet been ad- 
judged guilty ?" and so saying he drew his sword and 
cut the ropes which bound Jesus to the pillar. Through 
all the torture He had stood motionless, without uttering 
a groan or even a sigh, like a meek lamb led out to 
slaughter. 

So great was the weakness of Jesus that when the 
ropes were cut He fell to the ground and became bathed 
m His own blood which had collected in a small pool at 
His feet. His fall was witnessed by all, but no one 
advanced to raise Him. Struggling to His feet with 
difficulty, He painfully moved to the place where He had 
Jeft His clothes and hastily put them on to cover His 



JESUS IS SCOURGED AT THE PILLAR. 179 

nakedness, which was more painful to Him than the 
scourging. 

Mary, the beloved Mother of Jesus, was present, but, 
at the first blow of the executioner, she beheld a stream 
of the sacred blood of her Divine Son fly up into the air, 
and she swooned. When she recovered, she saw Him 
wounded from head to foot, but, being unable to assist or 
even to reach Him on account of the great multitude 
and her own extreme weakness, she was forced to remain 
an afflicted witness of His terrible sufferings, lovingly 
consoled and comforted, however, by Mary Magdalene 
and St. John, who, during all the passion, were her con- 
stant and inseparable companions. 

Considering all these sufferings of Jesus and Mary, 
shall we complain of some infirmities or tribulations 
which, to try our patience or to punish us for our sins, 
God may from time to time be pleased to send us ? " O 
Eternal Father," cries St. Augustine, "look upon Thy 
Son, and through and for Him forgive Thy guilty ser- 
vant ! Look on the lacerated flesh of Thy Son, and for- 
give the sins of my rebellious flesh ; while the latter pro- 
vokes Thee to wrath, the former shall incline Thee to 
mercy." 



180 MEDITATIONS ON THE SUFFERINGS OF CHRIST. 



CONSIDERATION XXXII. 
Jesus is crowned with Thorns, 

" Aud platting a crown of thorns, they put it upon His head, 
and a reed in His right hand." — St. Matt, xxvii. 29. 

First Point. 

THE scourging of our Lord was barbarous, atrocious, 
and inhuman ; but the crowning with thorns was 
still more so, because it was not ordered by a judge, for 
it was never used as a mode of punishment, and because 
the head is the noblest part of the body. It was the 
most tormenting incident in our Saviour's painful pas- 
sion, and lasted longer than the scourging or the cruci- 
fixion. Even the very act of dying was less painful to 
Him, for that was soon over, and put an end to all His 
sufferings ; whereas the pain of crowning followed Him 
to His last breath, and made Him suffer as many deaths 
as there intervened instants between the hour of His 
crowning and that of His death. 

Before He was crowned with thorns, Jesus was dragged 
back to the tribunal, and there the whole Roman cohort, 
which comprised fifteen hundred men, gathered around. 
Some of them removed His garments and put on Him a 
scarlet cloak which was intended as a royal mantle, and 
"platting a crown of thorns, they put it upon His head, 
aud a reed in His right hand.'' 

We should profoundly meditate upon these things in 



JESUS IS CROWNED WITH THORNS. 181 

order to form, if possible, a faint idea of the intense tor- 
ture which Jesus must have suffered on this occasion. 

In the first place, He was stripped of His garments. 
As they were sticking to His gashed and bleeding flesh, 
their removal caused a reopening of His wounds, some 
of which were so wide as to allow His bones to be seen. 

In the second place, we should consider that after the 
scourging only one part of the Saviour's body remained 
intact, — His sacred head; but these barbarians determined 
that it should not be without its torture. So, according 
to the Seraphic Doctor, St. Bonaventure, they said 
among themselves, " He said He was King of the Jews ; 
well, let us give Him a dress befitting a king, and provide 
for Him a crown, and so let us deck His head with a 
crown of thorns." Only the Jews, moved by the instiga- 
tions of Satan, could invent so infamous and cruel a plan 
of torture, and only a sanguinary and avaricious people 
like the Romans, who in this instance were well supplied 
with gold by the Jews, could carry such a plan into exe- 
cution. 

There still exists in the environs of Jerusalem a spe- 
cies of tree called Ran no, on which grow long sharp 
thorns. Formerly the inhabitants of that city employed 
the Ranno extensively for garden hedges, and there were 
many gardens there at the time of our Lord. It was 
not, therefore, very difficult for the soldiers to procure 
thorns, and they may even have found them in the guard- 
room among the fuel. However they came by them, 
they availed themselves of them to plat a horrible crown 
for our Saviour. According to some, it was made in the 
form of a wreath that it might encircle His head ; accord- 
ing to others, it was shaped like a cap, so as to cover the 
whole head. 



182 MEDITATIONS ON THE SUFFERINGS OF CHRIST. 

Having platted the crown, they placed it upon His 
head and pressed it down by beating it with a stick until 
the thorns pierced the skin and penetrated in different 
directions the forehead, eyebrows, temples, and skull, 
some of the longest reaching the brain. At first the 
blood began to flow in drops, but as the wounds grew 
wider, it fairly streamed forth. The thorns that thus 
tortured that sacred head were seventy-two in number ; 
but the punctures made by them were, according to St. 
Bernard, over a thousand. "Who, then, can conceive," 
says St. Vincent Ferrer, " the intense anguish of that sa- 
cred head pierced with thorns, since we, if we have only 
some slight wound on any part of our body, deem the 
pain almost unbearable ?" Let us meditate attentively on 
this mystery of the crowning with thorns. 



Second Point. 

One would think that the brutal crowning with thorns 
would have satisfied the barbarity of the Jews and Ro- 
mans. But no ; when they saw Jesus bathed in His own 
blood, with not a sound part in His whole body — as Isai- 
as in spirit had foreseen Him — they resolved to add tor- 
tures of mind to His tortures of body. Accordingly 
they compelled Him to sit down on a short pillar which 
is still preserved in the Church of the Holy Sepulchre, at 
Jerusalem, under the name of the " Column of Re- 
proaches," and, placing in His hand a reed for a sceptre, 
they passed before Him two by two, bent the knee, and 
mocked Him, saying. " Hail, King of the Jews." 

But their insults did not stop here ; some struck His 
sacred face and spit upon Him ; others snatched the reed 
from His hand and struck Him with it upon the head. 



JESUS IS CROWNED WITH THORNS. 183 

They trampled upon Him, blasphemed Him, and reviled 
Him in every way. Under the burden of so many in- 
sults, Jesus did not once open His mouth, verifying the 
words of the prophet : " He shall be led as a sheep to the 
slaughter, and shall be dumb as a lamb before His shearer, 
and He shall not open His mouth" (Isaias liii. 7). 

Come out, O daughters of Sion, to see your pacific 
King with the new diadem which the synagogue has 
placed upon His head. "The One," says St. Bernard, 
" who is ever crowned with glory by His Eternal Father; 
the One who was crowned by Mary with the crown of 
our humanity; the One who, in the general judgment, 
shall be crowned with a crown of justice by the angels, 
— is now crowned by the synagogue with a crown of 
thorns and tortures !" 

The Seraphic Doctor, St. Bonaventure, filled with 
sorrow and indignation at the sight of Jesus crowned 
with thorns, exclaims : " O my most amiable Jesus ! how 
bitter and terrible the anguish Thou sufferest ! How is 
it that my soul doth not faint within me at the dread 
spectacle % Why doth not my heart melt with grief, and 
why do not my eyes overflow with tears ? Come, O my 
tears ! flow forth from the bottom of my heart. O heart 
of stone within me, how is it thou dost not break? 
"What ! my innocent Jesus suffereth so much for me, and 
I do not pity Him ! Have pity on me, O merciful 
Jesus ! because I can recall all these Thy sufferings and 
meanwhile remain insensible. Touch Thou my heart 
with a dart of Thy love, that I may only sorrow with 
Thee in Thy anguish." 

Behold how the Seraphic Doctor, who had always be- 
fore his mind the passion of our Lord, and who was 
ever moved to tears at its remembrance, accuses himself 



184 MEDITATIONS ON THE SUFFERINGS OF CHRIST. 

of indifference and begs the Lord to soften his heart. 
Let us do the same, and, following the advice of St. Ber- 
nard, let us often consider how much our Father, our 
Brother, our Master, suffered for us. But it is not suffi- 
cient to excite our hearts to compassion, we must also re- 
solve to suffer willingly for His sake. Since Jesus suf- 
fered under a crown of thorns for love of us, let us bear 
up under our afflictions for love of Him. Since Jesus 
was divested of His garments for our sake, let us divest 
ourselves of our evil habits for His sake. Since Jesus 
was clothed in a robe of purple for us, let us abandon the 
vanities of the world for Him. Since Jesus bore insult 
and opprobrium for our sake, let us bear patiently any 
insulting words which may be addressed to us. For a 
God who has suffered so much, let us be willing to suffer 
something. 

The fruit of our meditation should be a firm resolution 
to be patient under afflictions and infirmities, to be re- 
signed in everything, to be silent under insults and in- 
juries, to hate sin, and to love the cross to the end. 



JESUS IS SHOWN TO THE PEOPLE. 185 



CONSIDERATION XXXIIL 

Jesus Christ crowned with Thorns is shown to 
the People. 

("Jesus therefore came forth, hearing a crown of thorns, 
and the purple garment.) And He saith to them: Behold the 
Man." — St. Jo7mxix. 5. 



First Point. 

THE soldiers heaped insults and outrages upon the pa- 
tient Saviour seated on the Column of Reproaches, 
and they would, perhaps, have prolonged their fiendish 
sport had not Pilate, noticing the delay made in announc- 
ing the execution of the scourging, commanded Jesus to 
be brought before him. Alas! how horrified must not 
that judge have become on beholding the Redeemer in 
so frightful a condition % He could not have believed 
Him to be the man whom he had so recently confronted, 
had he not observed that the Jews were filled with the 
same diabolical fury against Him. On beholding the 
Saviour so sadly changed, His body all bruised, His sacred 
head transfixed with thorns, His countenance covered 
with blood, His whole form trembling and almost sink- 
ing from weakness and exhaustion, it occurred to Pilate 
that at so affecting a sight the Jews would at last be 
moved to compassion ; so he resolved to show Him to 
the people, and thus make another effort to save His life. 
Meanwhile, the atrium and street were crowded with 



186 MEDITATIONS ON THE SUFFERINGS OF CHRIST. 

people who had come to witness the proceedings of the 
trial. All were impatient to see it brought to an end, 
and the intensest indignation continued to be manifested 
against the jndge and the alleged criminal. 

Now, adjacent to the tribunal there was an open gal- 
lery extending across the public street like a bridge and 
exposed to view on every side, so that any one passing 
over it could be seen, not only by persons standing in the 
street below, but also by those stationed at the windows 
of the neighboring houses. An arch known by the name 
" Ecce Homo" still exists at Jerusalem and keeps alive 
the memory of this famous gallery. It attracts the eye 
of the tourist at once as he emerges from the extreme 
western portion of the city. 

It was from this gallery that Pilate resolved to show 
the Saviour to the people in the hope of moving them to 
compassion ; and to make the spectacle more solemn, he 
determined that he himself would present the alleged 
culprit. 

Accordingly he advanced to the gallery, and, taking a 
position there with Jesus by his side, thus addressed the 
assembled multitude : " Behold the Man. Behold the 
Man whom you have delivered into my hands to be 
judged ! Behold to what a miserable state He has been 
reduced by my orders which were given to please you ! 
Look upon Him well, and tell me whether you can any 
longer recognize Him, and whether I could well have 
punished Him more severely. I have already told you 
that I believe Him innocent, nor do I yet find any cause 
in Him to justify me in condemning Him. I have al- 
ready done enough ; nay, I fear that in my desire to sat- 
isfy your wishes I have gone too far by punishing an 
innocent man. Be content, therefore, with seeing Him 



JESUS IS SHOWN TO THE PEOPLE. 187 

reduced to this miserable state in which He retains scarcely 
a human resemblance." 

" Behold the Man," says St. Augustine, paraphrasing 
this passage, " behold the Man no longer illustrious by 
the possession of power, but covered with opprobrium ! 
If hitherto you envied Him His power, now that you see 
Him reduced so low, forgive Him the delusion under 
which He labored, and which made Him call Himself a 
king. He has been scourged, crowned with thorns ; a 
rag of purple is His royal mantle; He has been mocked 
and despised ; He has been struck, and spit upon, and 
subjected to every humiliation. Lay aside, therefore, 
your envy and hatred of Him, now that He has been 
brought to shame — a shame without measure." 

The paraphrase of Blessed Cherubino of Spoleto runs 
as follows : " Behold the Man ! Behold to what a miser- 
able condition He has been reduced, so low that almost 
all human resemblance has been obliterated in Him ! And 
yet He is not a dog — He is not a beast ! He is of your 
own blood, He is of your own kin, He is of your own 
nation ! Therefore, have pity on Him and allow me, 
since I cannot restore to Him His resemblance to a hu- 
man being, to bestow upon Him the poor boon of the 
preservation of His life." 

Let us examine our own hearts and see what impres- 
sion is made upon them by the contemplation of the 
scourging at the pillar. 

Second Point. 

What heart of flint would not have been softened at the 
eight of this Man of Sorrows? Yet this pitiful spectacle 
did not awaken the least sentiment of humanity in the 



188 MEDITATIONS ON THE SUFFERINGS OF CHRIST. 

minds of the chief priests, the ancients of the people, 
the scribes and Pharisees, and the Jewish populace ; but, 
like Hyrcan tigers, the more blood they saw, the moie 
thirsty for blood they became, and so they sent up a fierce 
shout of hatred against Jesus, and cried, " Let Him be 
crucified ; crucify Him, crucify Him." 

O cruel and impious men ! what has this Man done to 
you that you so eagerly wish to see Him suspended on 
the cross ? Alas ! look on Him once more and harden 
not your hearts to shut out His loving call. Behold how 
He who was the Expected of nations is now despised ! 
Behold, that heavenly countenance, the sight of which 
had been so eagerly desired through all past ages, is now 
disfigured ! Behold, how He w T hom your ancestors had 
longed and prayed for, and who was at last, by a special 
grace, granted to you, is now reprobated and condemned ! 
O Abraham ! behold Him whom you had so ardently de- 
sired to see ! O Isaias, behold Him of whom you prophe- 
sied so many things ! O David, O prophets, O patri- 
archs, behold the only begotten Son of God, so often and 
so long announced by you, and so long expected by the 
nations of the earth ! Behold the Son of man, not 
crowned with a crown of glory and honor, but immersed 
in anguish and ignominy ! Come forth from your long- 
sealed tombs to behold Hiin, and say if you recognize in 
Him the Messias, the subject of your prophecies, the ob- 
ject of your desires throughout the ages ! 

But it is vain to hope to see the Jews moved to pity 
by the sight of the Man of Sorrows. It is vain to call 
upon the patriarchs and prophets to bear witness to the 
multitude of His afflictions. But we Christians, who with 
eyes of faith contemplate our suffering Saviour, should 
endeavor to bring Him some comfort by attentively medi- 



JESUS IS SHOWN - TO THE PEOPLE. 189 

tating on His deplorable condition, and sincerely and 
lovingly sympathizing with Him in His anguish. Con- 
sider, then, O Christian soul ! who it is that stands there 
on the gallery, apparently in the guise of a king, but 
really covered with shame and despised as the last of 
men. He wears a crown ; but, oh ! what pain it causes 
to His sacred head ! He is clothed in purple ; but here it 
symbolizes not royalty and honor, but baseness and con- 
tempt. He holds in His hand a sceptre, but it is no sign 
of authority and power, for it has been often snatched by 
the soldiers and violently used to wound His sacred per- 
son. Yes, those around Him have frequently bent the 
knee and hailed Him as their King ; but the salutation 
was strongly negatived by the disgusting spittle which 
always accompanied it. 

In the second place, let us consider the unalterable pa- 
tience of our Divine Lord. He murmurs not against His 
Eternal Father who has sent Him into this ungrateful 
world to become an object of injury and opprobrium ; 
He murmurs not against mankind for whose crimes He 
is subjected to torture; He utters not a word of com- 
plaint against the Jewish people who are loading Him 
with insults in return for the numberless benefits He had 
bestowed on them. 

Considering these words of Pilate to the people, " Be- 
hold the Man," St. Augustine applies them to himself 
and offers the following reflection : " Alas ! woe for us 
will 1)0 the day when we shall be presented before the 
judgment-seat of God, and it shall be said of each of us, 
1 Behold the man. Behold the man and the deeds of his 
life.' Alas! what shall we be able to answer on that 
great day ?" 

Without, losing sight of the Man-God as He is repre- 



190 MEDITATIONS ON THE SUFFERINGS OF CHEIST. 

sented by Pilate to the Jewish people, let us say within 
ourselves : " Behold the Man ! Yes, O my soul ! behold 
the Man who hath so loved thee and suffered for thee, 
and whom thou in return hast so often and so grievously 
offended. Fix thy gaze upon Him, and see if there be 
any sorrow like unto His. Look upon that venerable 
head so cruelly crowned with thorns ! Look upon that 
sacred body covered with so many wounds ! Look upon 
that divine face impiously polluted with spittle, — and 
then if thou be still insensible to His sufferings, let thy 
voice, too, mingle with the voices of the Jewish rabble, 
and cry out, " Let Him be crucified ! let Him be cruci- 
fied!"" 

I once saw in the Church of the Holy Sepulchre at 
Jerusalem two Turkish soldiers earnestly contemplating 
a picture representing Pilate's presentation of the Saviour 
to the Jews, and judging by their countenances they were 
deeply mo,ved by the suffering and anguish depicted there. 
Yet these poor infidels did not know whether the divine 
original of that picture was an innocent man or not ; and 
shall we who know by faith that such an image, such a 
picture of the " Ecce Homo" represents the Man of Sor- 
rows, the Man-God, who subjected Himself to all kinds 
of sufferings for us, — shall we remain insensible and gaze 
upon that divine face unmoved '. 

O loving Jesus ! soften our hardened hearts once and 
forever, that we may truly know and properly appreciate 
all Thy love for us. 



JESUS CONDEMNED TO THE DEATH OF THE CROSS. 191 



CONSIDERATION XXXIY. 

Jesus is again questioned by Pontius Pilate, and 
then condemned to the Death of the Cross. 

" Then therefore he delivered Him to them -to be crucified." 

St. John xix. 16. 

First Point. 

"DILATE had made many efforts to save Jesus, but the 
J- Jews still clamored for His crucifixion; at last, 
weary of reasoning with that obstinate people, he said to 
them, " Take Him you, and judge Hi in according to 
your law." But the Jews answered, " It is not lawful 
for us to put any man to death" (St. John xviii. 31). 
They further added that Jesus had declared Himself to be 
the Son of God, which of itself made Him deserving of 
death. 

Believing Jesus to be innocent, Pilate could not bring 
himself to acquiesce in this wicked desire of the Jews; 
but when he heard the last accusation, he was seized with 
fear and began to regret having condemned Him to be 
Lrged, not because he compassionated or venerated 
the Saviour, but because he feared for himself and his 
o i interests. Indeed, so strong was this fear that he 
re-entered the tribunal, ordered Jesus to be again brought 
before him, and, having dismissed the guards, began to 
question Him anew, saying, "Whence art Thou?" But 
the Redeemer ixave no answer. 



192 MEDITATIONS ON THE SUFFERINGS OF CHRIST. 

During the process of the trial Pilate had learned that 
Jesus was a Galilean, and that He belonged to the Jewish 
nation. But he was not satisfied with this knowledge ; he 
wished to know His origin and parentage, and to ascer- 
tain if He really were a divinity. The advice of his wife 
still disturbed him ; the fame of the Saviour's miracles 
had reached his ears ; the patience and fortitude with 
which He bore the scourging and suffered throughout 
the trial had aroused his admiration ; and now upon 
hearing that He claimed to be the Son of God, he 
strongly suspected that His claim, perhaps, was true. 
Hence the question, " TThence art Thou ?" 

Offended at the silence of Jesus, and forgetting for a 
moment his suspicion, Pilate angrily said, " Speakest 
Thou not to me ? knowest Thou not that I have power 
to crucify Thee, and I have power to release Thee ?" To 
this our Lord modestly replied : " It is true, it is in thy 
power to do justice or not, to condemn Me or to release 
Me ; but know that thou shonldst not have any power 
against Me, unless it were given thee from above. There- 
fore he that hath delivered Me to thee hath the greater 
sin." This humble answer aroused new suspicions and 
apprehensions in the judge's mind, and, full of fear, 
gnawed by remorse for the past, doubtful for the pres- 
ent, and anxious for the future, he paused to consider 
how he might be enabled to set Jesus at liberty. Notic- 
ing the length of time that Pilate remained apart with 
Jesus, and remembering the deference with which he had 
treated Him throughout the trial, the Jews began to sus- 
pect the workings of Pilate's mind and feelings, and re- 
solved to allow him no time to mature his plans; hence 
they cried out, "If thou release this Man, thou art not 
Caesar's friend. For whosoever maketh himself a king 



JESUS CONDEMNED TO THE DEATH OF THE CROSS. 193 

speaketh against Caesar." This was equivalent to saying, 
" By liberating one who has made himself king thou, 
showest that thou carest little for Caesar's sovereign 
power ; and for this thou shalt certainly fall under his 
displeasure." 

These words put the climax to the doubts and appre- 
hensions of Pilate, and he said within himself, " If I 
condemn this Man, I betray my duty, my conscience, 
and the cause of justice, and perhaps I draw down upon 
myself the anger of the gods ; but, on the other hand, if 
I release Him, the Jews will accuse me before Caesar of 
having set at liberty a Man whom they had delivered to 
me as a seducer of the people and a rebel. What shall I 
do '? what shall I do ?". O weak-minded judge, do thy 
duty, and fear not ! 

Let us apply to ourselves the fears, doubts, and appre- 
hensions of Pilate. When the world, the flesh, and the 
devil tempt us to sin, do we not feel within our hearts 
the impulse of divine grace, the fear, the reproaches of 
our conscience dissuading us from yielding our consent? 
Happy for us if, hearkening to those interior voices which 
proceed from God, we turn away from the beckonings 
of temptation, and close our ears to the allurements of 
vice. 



Second Point. 

Deafened by the noise and howlings of the Jewish rab- 
ble, Pilate again ascended his judgment-seat, not to con- 
demn Jesus, but to make one last effort to set Him at 
liberty. Near the tribunal, and within the precincts of 
the governor's palace, there was a place called in Greek 
Lithostrotos, and in Hebrew Gabbalha, which, according 
13 



194 MEDITATIONS ON THE SUFFERINGS OE CHRIST. 

to St. Jerome, signifies high, celebrated. It was accessi- 
ble by means of several marble steps which constitute 
the Holy Stairs now sacredly preserved in Rome. At 
the top of these steps stood two large stones, one red and 
wrought in the form of a throne, the other black and 
shaped like a bench ; the former was used as a seat for 
the judge, the latter as a seat for the culprit. 

Leading Jesus to this place, and ascending his throne, 
Pilate said to the Jews, " Behold your King." This ex- 
pression was ironical, for he did not believe Christ to be 
the King of the Jews. He might as well have said : " Be- 
hold, O Jews, that King whom you fear so much and 
whose life you seek so anxiously. Look at Him. He 
has been scourged until His bones are laid almost bare ; 
He has been struck, mocked, and spit upon, and finally 
covered with a rag of purple. Is it, perhaps, this royal 
purple that so much troubles you? He holds in His 
hand a rod. Think you it is the royal sceptre, grasped 
by all your ancient kings, and which, now swayed by 
Caesar Augustus, holds the world in fear and awe ? Ap- 
proach and see it : it is only an empty reed, a symbol of 
weakness rather than of power. Look at the crown of 
thorns He wears : is this His royal diadem ? This Man 
whom you so much hate and so much fear, and whom 
you wish me to condemn to death, — what evil has He 
done ? what evil can He do \ He is helpless ; if ques- 
tioned, He answers not ; if insulted, He makes no reply. 
I have punished Him in order to please you, and He has 
borne His punishment with patience. Why then do you 
persist in calling for His execution ? You say that He 
wished to make Himself king. Behold, He is here in 
irons ; He is here before you and me, despised as the 
lowest among men, the butt and opprobrium of the rab- 



JESUS CONDEMNED TO THE DEATH OP THE CROSS. 195 

ble. If really He wished to be ting, behold the strange 
manner of royalty He has attained !" 

Pilate's harangue was in vain ; the Jews were more 
than ever enraged against the Saviour, and cried out 
again, " Away with Him, away with Him ! crucify Him !" 
On hearing this frantic and unreasonable demand, the 
judge could no longer restrain his indignation, and giving 
it free vent he said, " Shall I therefore crucify your 
King 2" But the Jews cried out with still greater fury, 
and the chief priests made answer, " We have no king 
but Caesar." At last, overcome by the fear that he might 
be accused before Csesar of being an accomplice to the 
crime of high treason, and thus be deprived of his posi- 
tion, the impious and unjust judge pronounced the sen- 
tence of death and delivered Jesus to be crucified. 

O perfidious judge! if thou didst desire to commit 
such injustice, why didst thou delay so long ? Why didst 
thou send Him to Herod to have Him mocked ? Why 
didst thou condemn Him to be scourged, and exposed 
naked before the whole multitude % Why didst thou 
permit Him to be crowned with thorns ? O perfidious ! 
O impious ! 

But while we justly condemn the conduct of Pilate, 
what spiritual profit shall we derive from the considera- 
tion, of his unjust sentence ? Let it be a firm resolution 
to conquer human respect, and to be willing to die a 
thousand deaths rather than betray our conscience. 



196 MEDITATIONS ON THE SUFFERINGS OF CHRIST. 



CONSIDEKATION XXXV. 
Jesus sets out towards Mount Calvary. 

"And after they had mocked Him, they took off the cloak from 
Him, and put on Him His own garments, and led Him away to 
crucify Him." — St. Malt, xxvii. 31. 



First Point. 

rpHE sentence of death which Pilate pronounced 
-*~ against Jesus was a great triumph for the Jews and 
a complete victory for the synagogue, and would have 
caused unusual rejoicing in hell, were rejoicing possible in 
that place of horrors and perpetual despair. Signs of ex- 
ultation were visible on every side. The rabble were 
transported with joy by the abominable sentence, and the 
chief priests and members of the Sanhedrim swelled with 
pride at the thought of the victory they had achieved. 
The executioners, who were well paid for their barbarity, 
immediately proceeded to discharge the infernal obliga- 
tions of their office, falling upon Jesus like lions upon 
their prey. " They have taken Me as a lion prepared for 
the prey : and as a young lion dwelling in secret places" 
(Psalms xvi. 12). 

Their first act was to tear off the purple mantle and re- 
clothe Him in His own garments. They made this change 



JESUS SETS OUT TOWARDS MOUNT CALVARY. 197 

for several reasons : First, that He might be more readily 
recognized by the people ; secondly, that the sufferings 
of His wounded body might be increased by the violent 
removal of the adhering cloak; thirdly, that advantage 
might be taken of that clause in their law which allowed 
the executioners to divide among themselves the gar- 
ments of the culprit at the place of execution. 

Having clothed Him, they led Him out of the tribunal, 
and then dragged Him to the court-yard where lay the 
heavy cross prepared for Him. St. Thomas of Yillanova 
tells us that Jesus did not wait for the soldiers to place 
it upon His shoulders, but that upon seeing it He eagerly 
advanced and, raising it, embraced and kissed it. "What 
a confusion for us, to see our Lord embracing and kissing 
the cross, while we employ every means in our power to 
avoid it ! — and yet our cross, however heavy, can never 
be compared with His. 

With this burden pressing on His shoulders Jesus 
started towards Mount Calvary. " And bearing His own 
cross He went forth to that place which is called Calvary, 
but in Hebrew Golgotha (St. John xix. 17). " Great 
spectacle !" exclaims St. Augustine, " to see the Victim 
carrying on His own shoulders the instrument of His 
torture ; great mockery, if we consider the impiety of 
the Jews ; but still greater mystery, if we contemplate 
the piety of Jesus !" St. Bernard says that Jesus bore 
that cross which in a short time was to bear Him. 

Blessed Simon of Cassia thus apostrophizes the Saviour 
bending under the weight of the cross : " Whither goest 
Thou, amiable Jesus, with that heavy cross? Where 
earnest Thou it ? Why sweatest Thou so much under 
its burden V Ah ! we know only too well where and 
why He is carrying it. 



198 MEDITATIONS ON THE SUFFERINGS OF CHRIST. 

Here let us pause and make a fruitful reflection : 
Jesus, who is the prototype of innocence, joyfully accepts 
and carries the heavy cross which His enemies have pre- 
pared for Him ; and we, who are guilty of a thousand 
sins, refuse to bear with patience the little cross of daily 
trials which He is pleased sometimes to send us. Let us 
compare our conduct with His, and, confounded at the 
difference, let us resolve that, though we are not generous 
enough to suffer anything for Him, we will at least be 
humane enough to desist from treating Him with further 
cruelty and insult by our grievous offences. Let us also 
consider these words of our Lord : " He who taketh not 
up his cross and followeth Me is not worthy of Me."" 

Second Point. 

Let us go in spirit to Jerusalem and witness the pro- 
cession to Mount Calvary. The cavalry with flying flags 
comes first, and makes its way with difficulty through the 
surging crowd which throngs the street. Xext appear 
the executioners, bearing in their hands hammers, pincers, 
nails, and other instruments for the crucifixion. They 
are followed by a herald, or rather a public crier, who 
proclaims with a loud voice, " This is Jesus of Xazareth, 
condemned to the death of the cross." lie is followed 
by the gentle Lamb of God. O Christian soul, behold this 
awful spectacle ! Jesus, your Saviour, slowly advances, 
bowed down under the weight of the cross, covered with 
perspiration and completely exhausted. He walks be- 
tween two thieves, also condemned to death, but not car- 
rying their crosses. A clamorous multitude of every de- 
scription and condition press round Him, gaze unpity- 
ingly upon Him, gloat over the horrible sight of His suf- 



JESUS SETS OUT TOWARDS MOUNT CALVARY. 199 

ferings, and rend the air with their insulting and blas- 
phemous cries. 

St. Laurence Justinian says that Jesus moved along 
slowly, His eyes downcast, His head bent forward, His 
muscles relaxed, all languid and breathless, thoroughly ex- 
hausted by the outrages to which He was subjected in 
the palaces of Annas, Caiphas, Herod, and Pilate. But 
what pained Him more than all were the blasphemies of 
that insolent crowd. 

"Who is there possessed of any sense of humanity who 
would not weep, and weep bitterly, at this awful sight ? 
Yet, far from being moved to tears, the Jews are filled 
with the greatest joy. Oh, what a change in one short 
week ! He who is passing there with slow and feeble 
step, His knees trembling, His eyes downcast and sunken, 
His hair dishevelled, His face covered with blood, His 
head crowned with thorns, His form bending beneath the 
weight of the cross, — He is the Holy One who, one week 
ago, entered Jerusalem in a procession of triumph, amid 
the loud hosannas of the multitude, who proclaimed Him 
Son of David. Oh, how different the two processions ! 
"Then," says St. Anselm, "He was received as king; 
now He is driven out from the city an outcast." 

This sad lesson should be taken to heart and often 
carefully pondered, especially by those who rely too much 
upon their own strength ; by those who, having recei ved 
some spiritual consolation, think themselves arrived at 
the height of perfection ; and finally, by those who, after 
having remained for some time without offending God, 
deem their salvation assured and look upon others as lost, 
without reflecting that if they have done some good 
work, and have not fallen into sin, it is simply an effect 
of God's grace. 



200 MEDITATIONS ON THE SUFFERINGS OF CHRIST. 

Let us resolve to make it a principle of conduct not to 
glory in the good which we may have done nor in the 
evil which we have avoided. Let us thank God for hav- 
ing preserved us from those faults which we so much 
detest in others and beg Him to have mercy on us all. 



JESUS MEETS HIS BLESSED MOTHEK, 201 



CONSIDERATION XXXVI. 

Jesus falls for the first time: He meets His 
Blessed Mother. 

"And bearing His own cross, He went forth to that place which 
is called Calvary, but in Hebrew Golgotha." — 8t. John xix. 17. 

First Poiht. 

rpHE road over which our Lord passed on the way to 
-*- execution may still be seen among the ruins of Jeru- 
salem. Part level, part hilly, here straight and there 
tortuous, it extends from the tribunal of the Roman 
Governor to Mount Calvary, a distance of about eight 
hundred and twenty paces. At intervals it is dotted by 
pieces of marble columns strewn promiscuously over the 
ground, or by marble slabs inserted in the walls, both 
stones and slabs indicating the various stations frequented 
by the faithful in ancient times. It is called the Dolorous 
Road, also the Way of the Cross, and the stations which 
line its course correspond to those pictured on the walls 
of our churches. 

Let us now go in spirit to visit these stations, and medi- 
tate on them with contrite hearts. We shall not visit 
them all, but only those which, being more dolorous, will 
more powerfully appeal to our feelings and excite us to 



202 MEDITATIONS ON THE SUFFERINGS OF CHRIST. 

contrition. To-day let us consider the first fall of our 
Blessed Lord under the cross, and His meeting with His 
afflicted Mother. 

It is true that the Evangelists make no special mention 
of these two stations ; but they are also silent about other 
circumstances even more relevant. Still these circum- 
stances are not less reliable, because they have been 
handed down to the faithful by an uninterrupted tradi- 
tion, and have been countenanced by the Church. 

According to Cornelius a Lapide the cross was fifteen 
feet in length and eight feet in breadth. As our Lord 
carried it on His shoulders, the lower part must have 
dragged upon the ground, and we may suppose that it 
often met with obstructions or uneven places, against 
which it knocked with such violence as to give a fearful 
shock to His already enfeebled frame. Sometimes, too, 
in the rebound the upper part of the cross often struck 
against His sacred head, pressing further the crown of 
thorns and renewing all the agony of the hour of crown- 
ing. 

Our Holy Eedeemer's pace is as rapid as His strength 
will allow, yet the executioners are not satisfied ; they 
are impatient to reach Calvary. They push Him, and 
shower blows upon Him, until, at last, completely ex- 
hausted, He falls to the ground under the cross. Im- 
mediately those barbarous men gather around Him, prod 
Him with their swords, strike Him with their fists, kick 
Him, and finally, attaching a rope around His neck, they 
drag Him to His feet and oblige Him to continue the 
painful journey to Calvary. 

Without doubt, every one of us has a cross to carry ; 
but who can say that his is as heavy as that under which 
our Saviour fell ? Let us often look at the cross of Jesus, 



JESUS MEETS HIS BLESSED MOTHER. 203 

and ours, though it may indeed be heavy, shall appear 
light and its burden no longer distressing. It is true that 
the service of God is not easy for our corrupt nature ; 
but it is not hard to carry the cross in company with our 
loving Saviour. It is still a burden, but only a light one. 
Therefore, let us walk on courageously in the hours of 
infirmity and tribulation, never losing sight of Jesus, who, 
with His heavy cross, moves in advance. 

Second Point. 

Situated on the Way of the Cross is a little chapel dedi- 
cated to the Blessed Virgin Mary of the Spasm, in mem- 
ory of the acute pain which she suffered there upon 
meeting her Divine Son. In front of this chapel a short, 
narrow street leads off the Dolorous Way in the direction 
of Pilate's palace. A tradition relates that when Mary 
heard of Jesus' condemnation she attempted to reach 
Him, but being unable to make her way through the 
crowd, she hastened with St. John down this narrow 
street, and took a position at its intersection with the Way 
of the Cross, to await His coming and offer Him words 
of consolation and bid Him farewell. 

No sooner had she reached this place than the pro- 
cession passed. What must have been her anguish when 
she caught sight of her Divine Son loaded with His cross, 
walking between two thieves, and surrounded by brutal 
soldiers who ceased not for a moment to insult and torture 
Him ! At this heart-rending sight Mary rose superior 
even to herself, and rushing among the rabble, she forced 
her way as far as the executioners who, amazed at her 
heroism, stood back, thus allowing her to approach and 
embrace her beloved Son. Finding Himself in the arms 



204 MEDITATIONS ON THE SUFFERINGS OF CIIRIST. 

of His holy Mother, Jesus experienced the keenest an- 
guish. ISTo one can imagine the bitterness of grief, the 
pangs of sorrow, the acuteness of agony, felt at that mo- 
ment by those two great and sensitive souls. Reflect that 
it is the Mother of God who meets her Divine Son on 
His way to execution ; that He is covered with blood 
and wounds ; that His countenance is disfigured, His 
frame enfeebled, and a heavy cross rests upon His shoul- 
ders ; that He walks between two thieves, and is sur- 
rounded by cruel executioners who are thirsting for His 
blood. Can any but a mother attempt to estimate this 
Mother's grief ? 

Venerable Father Bartholomew of Saluzzo thus speaks 
of Mary on this occasion : " How different, O Mary, this 
last embrace from the many thou hast hitherto bestowed 
upon thy Son ! Oh, what grief ! Oh, what a sword of 
grief must have pierced thy heart ! What words of love 
and compassion must not Mary have exchanged with her 
Son ! Tell me, most amiable Jesus, what didst Thou say 
to Thy Mother at that painful meeting? . . . Think, O 
my soul, what must His words have been ! 'Have patience, 
dear Mother ; the hour of My death has arrived, but My 
anguish shall soon cease. I will rise within three days, 
and come to visit you.' ' O dear Child,' replied Mary, 
' am I then compelled to see Thee reduced to such a state ? 
Alas ! how can I live when Thou, who art the life of my 
soul, shalt die?'" 

St. Bernard thus apostrophizes Jesus on the same oc- 
casion : " Great is the grief caused Thee, O my good 
Jesns, by the burden of Thy cross, but not less is that 
caused Thee by the sight of Thy Mother ; the bitterness 
of Thy torments oppresseth Thee, but the grief of Thy 
Mother oppresseth Thee more." 



JESUS MEETS HIS BLESSED MOTHER. 205 

The fruit of this meditation should be a tender com- 
passion for the sufferings of Jesus and the grief of Mary, 
with an earnest appeal to them both to grant us the grace 
of knowing all they endured for our salvation. For, if 
we shall attain to this holy knowledge, it will certainly be 
easy for us to support any suffering for their love. 



206 MEDITATIONS ON THE SUFFERINGS OF CHRIST. 



CONSIDERATION XXXVII. 
Simon of Cyrene helps Jesus to carry His Cross. 

"And going out they found a man of Cyrene, named Simon: 
him they forced to take up His cross." — St. Matt, xxvii. 32. 

First Point. 

MARY was with Jesus only a few moments, for, re- 
covering from their surprise, the executioners tore 
her from the arms of her martyred Son and rudely pushed 
her back into the crowd ; then closing around Jesus, they 
forced Him by kicks and blows to accelerate His pace in 
order to make up for the time lost during the brief inter- 
view with His Mother. But Jesus was too weak to bear 
up longer under the heavy cross; His strength began 
visibly to fail, and the executioners, becoming alarmed 
lest He should die on the way and thus deprive them of 
the brutal satisfaction of crucifying Him, began to devise 
means of relieving Him. Observe that they are actuated, 
not by any motive of charity, but by a spirit of maligni- 
ty, desiring, as Dionysius remarks, to reserve Him for a 
death more atrocious and painful. 

But who would submit to take up that cross which 
rendered infamous any one who carried it ? The Romans 
hated the cross ; so did the Jews. How, therefore, were 
they to attain their iniquitous end ? They found a way 



SIMON OF CYRENE HELPS TO CARRY THE CROSS. 207 

through injustice and violence, the chief means employed 
by them during the passion. 

A man named Simon, a Cyrenian, happened to pass. 
Though a native of Cyrene, he had long been a resident 
of Judea, and was at this time coming from a farm which 
he possessed in the neighborhood. The Jews ran after 
him, halted him, and, despite all his prayers, protestations, 
entreaties, and efforts to escape, forced him to take up 
and carry the cross. " And going out they found a man 
named Simon : him they forced to take up His cross." 

Happy Simon, if thou couldst but know the lot that 
hath fallen to thee ! Ah, if thou couldst only know 
"Whom thou art called upon to aid ! Then, indeed, that 
cross would seem to thee too light, and its burden thou 
wouldst esteem a high honor ! But alas ! thou knowest 
Him not, and therefore thou dost carry it unwillingly 
aud by force ; and thou findest torture in an object where 
thou shouldst find heaven. 

Let us apply these same reflections to ourselves. In- 
firmities, afflictions of spirit, poverty, humiliations, con- 
tradictious, and persecutions are all crosses which Al- 
mighty God sends us for our spiritual benefit. But do 
we carry them with willingness and joy % Do we not, 
on the contrary, try to avoid them and rid ourselves of 
them as soon as possible? And yet we know that they 
are so many aids to securiug salvation ; and that He who 
sends them knows how much we can bear, and never per- 
mits us to be burdened beyond our strength. Why, 
therefore, do we not support our crosses with patience 
and resignation for the love of God 



208 MEDITATIONS ON THE BUFFERINGS OF CHRIST. 



Second Point. 

Dionysius Carthusianus adduces as a reason for the 
Jews' relieving Jesus, that they feared lest He should die 
on the way and they would be thus deprived of the in- 
fernal pleasure of seeing Him expire on the cross. This 
opinion is supported by the nature of the ground of the 
Dolorous Way. Up to the fourth station the road is quite 
level and slightly ascending ; but at the point where Simon 
was arrested it begins to be difficult, precipitous, and 
rough. The Jews, therefore, naturally foresaw that His 
weak and exhausted condition would not allow Him to 
make the ascent alone. 

But there was for the Jews another cause of alarm. 
They knew that Pilate had condemned Him unwillingly, 
that he had even declared Him innocent in the presence 
of all, and they feared a revocation of the sentence of 
death. Therefore they wished to expedite the cruci- 
fixion, and on this account relieved Jesus of the cross. 

To Simon of Cyrene fell the great honor of being the 
companion of Jesus to Mount Calvary. But, considering 
the Man of Sorrows a malefactor, and the carrying of the 
cross the most ignominious of punishments, he bore it 
only with reluctance ; nay, he had to be subjected to it by 
force, as we learn from the Gospel narration. 

We know that of which Simon was ignorant ; yet how 
does it happen that we are unwilling to aid Jesus in 
carrying His cross ? We look upon the cross with the 
eyes of faith, and view it in a far diffei'ent light from 
that in which it was seen by Simon. We know that 
Jesus Christ has said, "And whosoever doth not carry 
his cross and come after Me cannot be My disciple" 



SIMON OF CYRENE HELPS TO CARRY THE CROSS. 209 

(St. Luke xiv. 27). We have before us the example of 
the virgins, confessors, martyrs, apostles, and of Mary and 
Jesus, who all carried their crosses, and crosses heavier 
than ours. We know that without the cross we cannot 
enter the kingdom of heaven. We know that whether we 
will it or not we must carry the cross. Finally, we know 
that Jesus Christ helps us to bear our cross, and ever 
renders it light and sweet if we accept it with patience 
and resignation. Shall we not henceforth bear our crosses 
willingly and patiently for love of Him 

If in the past we have failed in this regard, let us for 
the future accept resignedly all tribulations, persecutions, 
and infirmities, and every affliction of body or soul which 
God may be pleased to send us ; even entering into the 
spirit of the apostles of whom it is written, " And they 
indeed went from the presence of the council, rejoicing 
that they were accounted worthy to suffer reproach for 
the name of Jesus" (Acts v. 41). Let us imitate those 
many servants of God who, without retiring into con- 
vents or practising severe penances, became saints, be- 
cause they embraced with resignation the crosses which 
were annexed to their state of life. If we are so happy 
as to enter into this holy spirit, we shall be true followers 
of Christ, and shall receive a great reward in this life, and 
also in the next. 

Let us then carry the cross, but not as it was borne by 
Simon of Cyrene, who, as the Abbot Rupert observes, did 
not bear the cross willingly, neither was he crucified on 
it. Let us, on the contrary, so carry our cross as to be 
crucified on it, not in body, but in spirit — that is, with our 
vices and concupiscences. 
14 



210 MEDITATIONS ON THE SUFFERINGS OF CHRIST. 



CONSIDERATION XXXVIII. 

Jesus consoles the Women of Jerusalem who 

weep over Him: Veronica wipes His 

Face with a Handkerchief. 

" But Jesus turning to them said: Daughters of Jerusalem, 
-weep not over Me, but weep for yourselves, and for your chil- 
dren. " — St. Luke xxiii. 28. 

First Point. 

THOUGH relieved of His cross, Jesus was still so 
weak and exhausted that He could scarcely walk ; 
yet the executioners, impatient to reach Calvary, ceased 
not to push and drag Him along. This weakness and 
the violence of the executioners caused His second and 
third fall, which we commemorate in the beautiful exer- 
cise of the Way of the Cross. Still, in these last moments 
of His mortal career, though Himself plunged in the 
midst of a sea of suffering, Jesus was full of compassion 
for the sufferings of others, and consoled those devout 
persons who grieved for Him by giving them tokens of 
gratitude and sympathy. 

St. Luke the Evangelist relates that a multitude of 
men and women followed Jesus. This multitude was 
composed principally of fanatical Jews, who, at the in- 
stigation of the priests and ancients of the people, had 
cried out at the tribunal, "Let Him be crucified 1" and, 



JESUS CONSOLES THE WOMEN OE JERUSALEM. 211 

having wrung from Pilate the unjust sentence against 
Jesus, ceaselessly insulted and blasphemed Him. But 
there also mingled with the crowd some of the Redeemer's 
disciples, and some pious women who wept bitterly and 
struck their breasts as they followed Him. The beloved 
disciple St John was there ; so also was the Blessed Vir- 
gin with her inseparable companion, Mary Magdalene, 
together with the other Marys of whom the Gospel 
speaks. There were also persons present who had fol- 
lowed Jesus from Galilee. But by far the greater num- 
ber were from Jerusalem ; and because they differed in 
opinion from the scribes and chief priests as to the char- 
acter of Jesus, and pitied Him in His sufferings, they did 
not blush to draw near to Him, and, while the rabble 
deafened the ears with their blasphemous shouts, they 
wept most bitterly. Jesus, hearing their sobs, thus lov- 
ingly addressed them : " Daughters of Jerusalem, weep 
not over Me, but weep for yourselves, and for your chil- 
dren. For behold, the days shall come wherein they 
will say : Blessed are the barren, and the wombs that 
have not born, and the paps that have not given suck. 
Then shall they begin to say to the mountains : Fall upon 
us ; and to the hills : Cover us. For if in the green wood 
they do these things, what shall be done in the dry V (St. 
Luke xxiii. 28-31.) 

Venerable Bede thus paraphrases this Evangelical 
passage : " Weep not over Me, because you see Me going 
to meet temporal death ; but weep bitter tears that you 
may not be condemned to eternal death with the impious 
in revenge for this cross on which I am going to be cru- 
cified for the salvation of men." 

What a salutary subject for meditation is not this 
advice of Jesus Christ ! He alluded to the tremendous 



212 MEDITATIONS ON THE SUFFERINGS OF CHRIST. 

Day of Judgment, inciting those pious women to con- 
sider that if the Eternal Father so severely punished His 
Son for our sins, what shall become of the wicked on that 
awful day when mercy shall no longer have place, and all 
shall be obliged to give a strict account of every thought, 
word, and deed to that same God whom they have so 
often and so grievously offended ! Oh, how much should 
we dread the coming of that tremendous day ! 

Second Point. 

Though the address of our Lord to the pious women 
regarded the General Judgment, it also had reference to 
the terrible afflictions which were to come upon Jeru- 
salem ; for thirty-seven years after, when Titus besieged 
the Holy City, this terrible prediction of Jesus was liter- 
ally fulfilled. Then many mothers had to deny food to 
their little ones ; others went so far as to eat the flesh of 
their children; and all ^ere so reduced that barren 
women, long objects of contempt, were looked upon as 
blessed, because not forced to see their children suffer. 
However, they did not then understand the meaning^ of 
His words; hence they continued to weep over Him, 
without thinking of the misfortunes in store for them- 
selves. 

One among the crowd, by name Veronica, whose house 
according to some pious authors fronted on the Dolorous 
Way (its site is pointed out even at the present time) was 
deeply moved with compassion for the Saviour. On see- 
ing His sad condition, this heroic woman seemed forget- 
ful of all save her strung sentiment of pity, and taking a 
white handkerchief— one, perhaps, which she had around 
her head— and pressing through the crowd till she reached 



JESUS CONSOLES THE WOMEN OF JERUSALEM. 213 

His side, she devoutly wiped away the tears and blood 
and the soldiers' filthy spittle from the face of the Man 
of Sorrows. 

It is not known whether Veronica performed this act 
of heroic charity through a purely human impulse of 
compassion, or whether she was prompted by an illumi- 
nation from on high which made known to her who He 
was that suffered. However, it is certain that our Lord 
was pleased with her charity, and at once rewarded it by 
leaving on the handkerchief the impression of His sacred 
countenance. This relic, one of the most precious on 
earth, is venerated in St. Peter's Church at Kome, and 
strongly reminds us of the infinite charity of Jesus in 
suffering for us, and His generosity in rewarding those 
who compassionate His sufferings. 

From this consideration we may learn how great is the 
divine goodness, which never lets go unrewarded even 
the least act of charity. This reflection should encourage 
us to persevere in the practice of works of mercy. But, 
above all, we should learn how agreeable to Jesus is med- 
itation on His passion — that meditation in which we can 
find the cure of all our spiritual infirmities, and all the 
treasures of celestial consolations. Let us, therefore, fre- 
quently meditate on the sufferings of Jesus, and we shall 
most certainly receive our reward in this life and in the 
next. 



214 MEDITATIONS ON THE SUFFERINGS OF CHRIST. 



CONSIDERATION XXXIX. 

Vinegar and Gall are offered to Jesus; He is 
stripped of His Garments and nailed to the 
Cross. 

" And when they were come to the place which is called Cal- 
vary, they crucified Him." — St. Luke xxiii. 33. 

Fiest Point. 

HAVING traversed the full length of the Dolorous 
"Way, the procession arrived at the place of execu- 
tion. This place was called Calvary, a name signifying 
shull. It was a small hill which stood just outside the 
gates of the Holy City, in a northwesterly direction, and 
was flanked on one side by a garden belonging to Joseph 
of Arimathea, and on the other side by a valley known 
as the Vale of Dead Bodies, or the Vale of the Region 
of Death. "With regard to the name Calvary, many say 
that it was suggested by the form of the mountain, which 
resembles that of a human skull. Others, among whom 
are Origen and St. Jerome, maintain that it was derived 
from an old tradition that Adam's skull had been buried 
there so that the blood of our Lord trickling down from 
the cross might fall upon it and wash away the sins of 
our first parent and those of all his unhappy posterity. 
It is for this reason that we frequently see the figure of 
a skull engraved or pictured at the foot of the cross. Fi- 



JESUS IS NAILED TO THE CEOSS. 215 

nally, others are of the opinion that the mount was called 
Calvary because those condemned to death were exe- 
cuted there, and their bodies thrown into the valley be- 
low ; whence the name of Yale of Ashes, or Yale of the 
Region of Death. But let us recur to the matter of the 
present consideration. Jesus, the executioners, and the 
crowd had at length arrived at the top of Mount Cal- 
vary. Now, it was customary to give a condemned per- 
son a draught of wine mixed with myrrh in order to re- 
new his bodily vigor, — that his suffering might be longer 
and more intense. 

But Jewish hatred did more against their Messias. 
For wine and myrrh they substituted vinegar and gall, 
a potion worse than poison. Jesus did not refuse to ap- 
proach the bitter chalice to His lips ; but when He tasted 
it, He put it aside. Still He did taste it in order that 
the stomach and palate, which had hitherto escaped, 
might also be subjected to their particular torture. 

The body of Jesus having thus been internally and ex- 
ternally tormented, the executioners again seized Him 
and renewed the pain already twice inflicted by the re- 
moval of His garments. Not satisfied with stripping 
Him of His outer vesture, they also took the seamless 
tunic which served Him as a shirt, and which had been 
woven by the virginal hands of His Mother. There is a 
tradition that she made it for her beloved Son in His 
childhood, and that, like the garments of the Jewish chil- 
dren in the desert, it had grown with His growth. They 
pulled this garment off over His head ; and as it was quite 
narrow at the neck, they were obliged to remove the 
crown of thorns. These thorns being deeply imbedded 
in his head were not easily removed, and some of them 
broke and remained fixed in His delicate temples. But 



216 MEDITATIONS ON THE SUFFERINGS OF CHRIST. 

there was still another torture reserved for Jesus : no 
sooner had the tunic been removed than the crown was 
replaced, opening up new wounds, and renewing all the 
martyrdom of the former crowning. How atrocious 
must have been this torture, the mere contemplation 
of which, even in imagination, causes us to shudder 1 

Second Point. 

Everything was in readiness for the execution of the 
unjust sentence; the victim, the executioners, the instru- 
ments of torture, — all were there. The cross was laid 
upon the ground ; and without a moment's hesitation, 
Jesus voluntarily advanced, stretched Himself upon it, 
extended His arms as if to invite the executioners to a 
loving embrace, and presented His hands and feet to be 
nailed. But those barbarous men, far from accepting the 
Saviour's proffered love, sprang upon Him like enraged 
lions hungry for their prey. While some bound Him 
with cords, others seized the hammers and nails, and the 
cruel work of crucifixion was begun. Behold the horri- 
ble butchery practised on those divine hands which had 
made heaven and earth ! The right hand is seized upon 
first : the point of the nail breaks the skin ; it is driven 
down through the flesh, tearing open nerves, veins, and ar- 
teries, and causing the precious blood to flow forth. Hav- 
ing nailed the right hand, the executioners proceed to the 
left, but find that, on account of the contraction of the 
muscles, it cannot be extended far enough for the per- 
forating nail to enter the hole already bored in the cross 
for it. They, therefore, attach cords to the left arm, and 
bracing their feet against the cross, they pull and pull 
that sacred arm until, having dislocated the bones, they 



JESUS IS NAILED TO THE CROSS. 217 

wrench the hand to the required position and repeat on 
it the cruelties they had practised on the right. They 
then proceed to the feet, which for a similar reason are 
subjected to a process like that applied to the left hand. 
At last the infamous work is accomplished and Jesus is 
affixed to His cross. 

Contemplative writers give other details in connection 
with the nailing of the Saviour to the cross which add 
still more to its horrors. They affirm that after the nails 
were driven, the executioners determined to rivet them, 
and for this purpose turned the cross over so that Jesus 
lay, face downward, under the cross. In this position 
they trampled upon Him, as grapes are trodden in the 
wine-press. At length His bones were so dislocated that 
they could be numbered ; His eyes became dim and 
sunken in their sockets ; His body appeared shrunken, 
and His stomach seemed to cleave to His back. Through 
the half-open mouth the tongue might be seen all cov- 
ered with blood ; His divine countenance and delicate 
limbs were disfigured by wounds, and His whole ap- 
pearance justified the words of the prophet : " From the 
sole of the foot unto the top of the head there is no 
soundness therein : wounds, and bruises, and swelling 
sores : they are not bound up nor dressed, nor fomented 
with oil." 

" O man !" cries out St. Bonaventure, " if thou didst 
see even a brute thus affixed to a cross Avouldst thou not 
feel moved to pity for its sufferings ? Shoulclst thou not 
then be moved to compassion at the thought that so was 
crucified thy God ?" To arouse us still more to com- 
passion, the same holy Doctor subjoins : " Only think, 
O man, that it was principally on account of sinners 
that Christ was thus crucified !" St. Bernard echoes St. 



218 MEDITATIONS ON THE SUFFERINGS OF CHRIST. 

Bona venture and says : " Behold and consider, O sinner, 
what a martyrdom thy God underwent when He came 
in search of thee, before it was given Him to find thee !" 
Finally, let us say with St. Augustine, " O most amiable 
Jesus, I wish to live and die in Thy arms, those loving 
arms which were nailed to the cross for me !" 



THE SORROWFUL VIRGIN. 219 



CONSIDEBATION XL. 
The Sorrowful Virgin. 

" O all ye that pass by the way, attend, and see if there be any 
sorrow like to my sorrow. " — Lam. i. 12. 

Fikst Point. 

MEDITATION on the sufferings of our Lord should 
never be separated from meditation on the anguish 
of Mary ; for it is the common opinion of the Holy- 
Fathers that whatever Jesus suffered in His most sacred 
body, Mary also suffered in her holy soul. The satisfac- 
tion which we give our Lord by meditating on the sor- 
rows of Mary is not less than that which we give Him 
by meditating on His own sufferings. The present con- 
sideration, therefore, shall be dedicated to the sufferings 
of Mary during the crucifixion of her Divine Son. 

Two distinct places are venerated at Jerusalem and 
dedicated to the sorrows of the Blessed Virgin on Mount 
Calvary. One is the place where she stood while Jesus 
was being nailed to the cross ; the other, the place where 
she stood while Jesus was hanging on the cross. The 
Evangelists speak only of the latter; but the Fathers of 
the Church, relying upon a constant tradition, speak of 
the former, which is situated on the side of Mount Cal- 
vary, where at present there is a chapel dedicated to the 
sufferings of Mary. 



220 MEDITATIONS ON TTIE SUFFERINGS OF CHRIST. 

Let us first consider the sorrowful Mother as she wit- 
nesses her Son being nailed to the cross. 

On account of the great multitude which assembled on 
Mount Calvary to behold the divine tragedy, Mary found 
it impossible to approach her Divine Son ; but forcing 
her way through the crowds, she gained a position on the 
side of the mountain from which she was afforded a full 
view of the place selected for the execution. There she 
stood and witnessed the preparations which were being 
made for the crucifixion. Some of the executioners were 
engaged in boring holes in the cross to receive the nails 
which soon would pierce His sacred hands, while others 
chiselled a cavity in the rock in which to place the cross. 
When their work was completed, she saw Jesus advance 
and lay Himself upon His bed of death ; the crowd sur- 
rounded Him and shut out her view. But at the first 
stroke of the hammer which was nailing Him to the 
cross, the power of her love revealed itself and infused 
into her a wonderful strength far exceeding that of na- 
ture. 

The blows struck Mary's heart before their sound 
reached her ear ; instantly she started forward, pressed 
through the rabble, and ascended the mountain, there to 
behold (sad spectacle for a tender mother) her amiable 
Son naked aud nailed to a cross. Mary's grief on this 
occasion was boundless. " To what shall I compare thee ? 
. . . For great as the sea is thy destruction : who shall 
heal thee ?" (Lam. ii. 13.) As this holy Virgin knew that 
Jesus' nakedness gave Him more pain than all the tor- 
tures that the executioners could inflict, she took the veil 
that covered her head and, moving backwards through 
modesty, laid it over Him, then, turning, she carefully 
fixed it around His sacred body. 



THE SORROWFUL VIRGIN". 221 

O desolate Mother, whither hast thou gone? Alas! 
we have not courage to follow thee, even in thought, to 
Calvary. Now, now is the time for weeping ! I shall 
say to thee with Venerable Bartholomew of Saluzzo : 
" Now is the time for sorrow ! Now thou art at the 
bottom of thy greatest anguish. Only one consolation 
remains to thee, O Mary, and that is a bitter one — to stay 
beside thy Son, to comfort Him in His agony, and then 
to die with Him. But no ; even this is denied thee by 
the brutal executioners, who, impatient to raise the cross 
loaded with the weight of thy amiable and Divine Son, 
tear thee away from Him and force thee violently back 
among the crowd. O most afflicted Mother! to what 
shall I compare thee, or to what shall I liken thee, O 
Daughter of Jerusalem, in order to form even a faint 
idea of thy immense grief ? Alas ! only the depths of 
the sea can give me any conception of the depths of thy 
grief! 

Second Point. 

In order to form an idea of Mary's immense grief, it 
would be necessary to know the extent of her love. Now, 
as Mary — so St. Jerome says — loved Jesus more than He 
was loved by all the rest of mankind, so her grief was 
greater than any other imaginable grief. St. Bernard 
says that the greatness of the martyrs' love mitigated the 
anguish of their sufferings. But this was not the case 
with the Blessed Virgin : the more she loved, the more 
she was afflicted, her sufferings being proportionate to 
her love. Alas ! how cruel must have been the martyr- 
dom which she endured ! St. Bernardine of Sienna says 
that if Mary's grief could have been divided among all 
creatures capable of entertaining it, they would all have 



222 MEDITATIONS ON THE SUFFERINGS OF CHRIST. 

instantly died. In a word, her grief was as immense as 
was her love. 

There is no holy Father, or devout contemplative, who, 
when considering this point of our Lord's passion, does 
not address Mary, and express, as best he can, his amaze- 
ment at the dauntless constancy and heroic fortitude 
which she displayed in sorrow and tribulation. All the 
pain inflicted on Jesus' sacred body converged to His 
Mother's loving heart and became concentrated there. 

The Seraphic Doctor, St. Bonaventure, considering 
this sorrowful mystery, is filled with tender pity and thus 
apostrophizes Mary : « O most pure Lady, why didst thou 
not remain solitary in thy humble cell I "Why didst thou 
come out to Calvary ? Alas ! it was not thy habit to 
come out to witness such spectacles; why, therefore, did 
not thy natural modesty retain thee at home on this occa- 
sion J "Why did not the horrors of the place, the crowds, 
the shouts and blasphemies of the rabble, the madness of 
those demons— why did these not restrain thee ? Alas ! 
I know the reason— because thy heart was given over to 
grief ! Thou didst not consider the presence of the rab- 
ble, the fury of the soldiers and executioners, the hatred 
of the scribes and Pharisees, but only the atrocity of the 
wounds of thy Son, the puncture of the nails, all His suf- 
ferings and His sorrows. O Lady, thy heart was wounded 
by the lance that pierced His side! Thou, too, wast 
nailed to the cross, crowned with thorns, mocked and de- 
spised ; in a word, thou didst suffer in thy soul all the 
torments that afflicted His most sacred body. O Mary, 
O sweet heart of love, how thou hast become immersed 
in grief! I contemplate thy heart, O most dear Lady, 
and I can no longer recognize it for what it was ! For it 



THE SORROWFUL VIRGIN. 223 

is no longer a heart ; it has been turned into bitterest 
gall!" 

So speaks the Seraphic Doctor, St. Bonaventure. Let 
us also enter into the heart of Mary, and, on beholding all 
its sorrow, let us excite ourselves to sentiments of love 
for her who so actively co-operated in the work of our 
Eedemption. 



224 MEDITATIONS ON THE SUFFERINGS OF CHRIST. 



CONSIDERATION XLL 

Jesus is raised on the Cross : He prays for His 
Executioners. 

" And Jesus said: Father, forgive them, for they know not what 
they do." — ,82. Luke-xxin. 3h 

First Point. 

SOME pious authors confound the place where Jesus 
was affixed to the cross with that on which the cross 
was placed upright. These writers think that the exe- 
cutioners first erected the cross and then built round it a 
platform upon which they raised Jesus by means of ropes, 
and from which they nailed Him to the cross. But this 
is very improbable, from the fact that it is contrary to the 
constant tradition of the people, and even to the practice 
of our Holy Mother the Church, who, in the pictures 
used in the devotion of the Stations of the Cross, always 
represents our crucified Saviour as being first nailed to 
the cross and afterwards elevated upon it. There are 
two places venerated in Jerusalem ; one as the place where 
He was affixed to the cross, the other as the place where 
the cross was raised. 

Having securely riveted the nails, the executioners 
dragged the cross to the spot on w r hich it was to be ele- 
vated, and dropped it with a great thud into the hole 
made for its reception. This fall shattered and shook 
the Saviour's limbs and sent a thrill of excruciating pain 



JESUS PRAYS FOR HIS EXECUTIONERS. 225 

throughout His entire frame. ITow was begun a new 
form of torture : suspended by three nails between heaven 
and earth, the wounds of His hands and feet were con- 
stantly widening, and His pain became so intense that 
every moment of the three hours during which He hung 
in that condition brought Him a cruel martyrdom. But 
these sufferings were light as compared with the anguish 
of His holy soul ; indeed, His mental suffering far ex- 
ceeded all the pains of crucifixion and of the most bar- 
barous death. 

The Evangelists relate that, immediately after the cru- 
cifixion, four of the soldiers who had taken an active part 
in the execution of the unjust sentence gathered together 
the garments of Jesus, and dividing them into four parts, 
took each a part. But for the seamless tunic which His 
Mother had made they cast lots, not wishing to spoil it 
by dividing it. 

While this division was being made the people passed 
and repassed under the cross, insulting Jesus, wagging 
their heads in mockery, and vomiting forth against Him 
the most horrible blasphemies. This was not done by 
the rabble alone, but also by the chief priests, the scribes 
and Pharisees. All these things had been foretold by 
the prophet, who, speaking in the person of the suffering 
Saviour, said : " All they that saw Me have laughed Me 
to scom : they have spoken with the lips, and wagged the 
head. And I am become a reproach to them : they saw 
Me, and they shook their heads" (Psalms xxi. 8 ; cviii. 25). 
Some cried out to Him, " If Thou be the Son of God, 
come down from the cross, and we will believe in Thee." 
Others said, " He saved others ; Himself He cannot save. 
Yah, Thou that destroyest the temple of God and in 
three days dost rebuild it : save Thy own self." Others 
15 



226 MEDITATIONS ON THE SUFFERINGS OF CHRIST. 

again said, with bitter irony, " He hoped in the Lord ; let 
the Lord deliver Him : let Him save Him, seeing He 
delighteth in Him. For if He be the true Son of God, 
He will defend Him, and will deliver Him from the 
hands of His enemies." 

But what does Jesus answer to all these insults and 
blasphemies? Eaising His languid eyes towards heaven, 
He prays His Eternal Father, " Father, forgive them, for 
they know not what they do." O admirable prayer, truly 
worthy of God ! 

Let us first meditate on +he terrible sufferings of Jesus 
during His agony on the cross ; then we shall pass to a 
consideration of the sublimity of His prayer. 

Second Point. 

" Father, forgive them, for they know not what they 
do." "What a difference between the legislators of earth 
and our most loving Redeemer! The former give forth 
their laws from the splendid height of a throne ; the lat- 
ter teaches His holy doctrine from the altar of the cross. 
What a difference between the written law and the law 
of grace ! The former is proclaimed from Mount Sinai 
amid flashes of lightning and peals of thunder; the latter 
from the sacred height of the cross. Following the ob- 
servation of Cardinal Bellarmine, let us notice that in 
this prayer Jesus does not address His Heavenly Father 
as God or Lord, but in order to placate His severity as 
Judge He appeals to Him by the tender name of Father. 
The excess of crime and ingratitude which was being 
committed had fully roused the anger of God, and Jesus 
could not better placate it than by making His appeal in 
the character of Son, as if by that loving word Father 



JESUS PRAYS FOR HIS EXECUTIONERS. 227 

He would say, " Father, I who am Thy Son, I who am 
suffering, — I freely forgive them ; do Thou then, O my 
Father, forgive them for love of Me ; for My sake for- 
give My executioners their sin against Thee and against 
Me. Remember, O My Father, that Thou art their 
Father also, and let Thy paternal clemency triumph over 
the severity of Thy justice." 

"Forgive them;" that is, as Cardinal Bellarmine para- 
phrases these words, " Forgive them who have divided 
My garments amongst themselves. Forgive all who have 
been the cause of My bitter passion ; forgive Pontius 
Pilate, who pronounced the unjust sentence against Me. 
Forgive all those who with loud voice cried out, ' Away 
with Him. Crucify Him, crucify Him ! ' Forgive the 
chief priests, the scribes and Pharisees, who have falsely 
accused Me ; forgive Adam, who by his sin was the first 
cause of My passion, and with him forgive all his pos- 
terity." 

In order that the petition might be more efficacious 
Jesus wished to found it upon some basis or give it some 
motive which would secure it favor in the Father's eyes. 
But as He could find no excuse for the injustice of Pilate, 
the cruelty of the soldiers, the envy of the priests, the 
folly and ingratitude of the people, the false testimony 
of His calumniators, He resolved to shield them all and- 
to plead for them on the ground of their ignorance. 
Wherefore He said, " For they know not what they do." 
It is true that if the Jews had recognized Jesus as the 
true God, they would never have crucified Him, accord- 
ing to the words of St. Paul : " If they had known, they 
would never have crucified the God of Glory." 

Having found an extenuation of their offence, He 
strengthens it by His omnipotent intercession, and thus 



228 MEDITATIONS ON THE SUFFERINGS OF CHRIST 

see ins to plead for His tormentors : " Forgive them, Father, 
for the sake of that love which Thou hast cherished for 
Me from all eternity ; forgive them through the infinite 
merits of My most painful passion, and through those 
same merits grant them true repentance, so that they 
may one day come to praise and bless Thee in the king- 
dom of heaven. If the rigors of Thy justice exact a 
condign satisfaction for the offences offered Thee, require 
it not, O My Father, at their hands, for they are not able 
to satisfy Thy justice ; but exact it from Me, who have 
loaded Myself with the burden of their sins. And lo ! 
I will offer Thee in atonement the rigors of the season 
in which I was born ; the persecutions which I suffered 
while a child ; the toils of the flight into Egypt ; the suf- 
ferings and toils undergone in the shop of My foster- 
father St. Joseph ; My fast of forty days ; the agony in the 
Garden of Gethsemani ; the insults I received in the house 
of Caiphas, the mockery and scourges which I endured in 
the palace of Herod and the tribunal of Pontius Pilate ; 
the painful journey to Mount Calvary ; and, finally, this 
My agony on the cross, — all these I offer Thee : pray, 
then, O Father, suspend for a while Thy wrath, and I will 
give Thee My very life as a holocaust. Yes ; I offer 
Thee this humanity which I took from the virginal womb 
of My now most afflicted Mother, — this humanity to 
which the divinity is so intimately united — I offer it to 
Thee as a holocaust on the altar of the cross, in expiation 
of all the sins of the world, and for the eternal salvation 
of mankind." 

O boundless love ! O admirable prayer ! — prayer 
worthy of a God ! And it is then true, O my beloved 
Saviour, that Thou didst make this sublime offering of 
Thyself at the very moment when Thy enemies were in 



JESUS PRATS FOR HIS EXECUTIONERS. 229 

the act of taking Thy life % It is thus that Thou dost 
avenge Thyself upon Thy enemies and executioners? 
"What then dost Thou desire me to learn from this great 
lesson % 

The will of our Lord is very evident. St. Bernard 
says, " Jesus prayed for His enemies ; and shall we then 
fail to pray for those who detract us ?" It is difficult, 
Bellarmine confesses, for human weakness to forgive, 
although, under the law of nature, it was practised by 
Joseph, who not only forgave his brethren who had so 
barbarously sold him, but also showered benefits upon 
their heads. It was practised under the written law by 
David, who patiently suffered the unjust persecutions of 
Saul ; nay, David frequently benefited him, even expos- 
ing his life for him. Under the law of grace it was 
practised by St. Stephen, who prayed for his murderers, 
by St. James, who, on being thrown from a high tower, 
asked pardon for the Jews who caused his death, and by 
St. Paul, who, in imitation of his Divine Master, blessed 
those who cursed him. We, too, must practise this holy 
forgiveness, if we wish to be true Christians and to save 
our souls. 



230 MEDITATIONS ON THE SUFFERINGS OF CHRIST. 



COtfSIDEEATIOtf XLIL 

The second Word spoken by Jesus on the Cross. 

" And Jesus said to him: Amen I say to thee, this day thou shalt 
be with Me in paradise. " — St. Luke xxiii. 43. 

Fikst Point. 

THE torture of the cross was already ignominious 
enough, but it did not suffice to satisfy those malig- 
nant Jews ; so they hastened to crucify the two highway 
robbers who had been brought to Calvary along with 
Jesus, and placed one at His right and the other at His 
left, in order that He might appear the most conspicuous 
and be considered the most infamous of the three. 

While the crowds passing and repassing under the cross 
ceaselessly insulted Jesus, one of the thieves joined His 
voice to theirs ; and upon hearing the chief priests mock 
the Saviour because He had made Himself the Son of 
God, this thief adopted the same ground of insult, and 
said, " If Thou be the Christ, save Thyself and us." 

The other robber whose name was Dismas, becoming 
indignant that a criminal on the point of death should so 
audaciously insult an innocent man similarly condemned, 
reproached his companion for his insolence and barbarity, 
saying to him : " Neither dost thou fear God, seeing that 
thou art under the same condemnation." This was as if 
he had said : " It is already an abominable thing for those 
walking there at the foot of the cross to insult an inuo- 



JESUS' SECOND WORD SPOKEN ON THE CROSS. 231 

cent and unfortunate man. But thou, who art on the 
point of giving up thy soul, thou who art guilty of many 
crimes, and justly condemned to death — dost thou, too, 
dare insult an innocent man condemned to the same tor- 
ture as thyself ? Fearest thou not God even in these last 
moments of thy wicked life 1 Thou art at the point of 
death, and still thou darest to insult one who has been 
unjustly condemned." And then he added, "And we in- 
deed justly, for we receive the due reward of our deeds : 
but this Man hath done no evil " (St. Luke xxiii. 41). 

Amidst the sounds of so many insults and blasphemies 
which resounded in Jesus' ears, sadly embittering His 
last moments, this voice of compassion and justice de- 
scended like balm on His soul. "Wishing at once to re- 
ward the generous robber, Jesus touched his heart with 
divine grace ; and immediately corresponding to that 
grace which filled him with confidence in the infinite 
mercy of God, Dismas turned to the Saviour, and with 
humility and contrition, said, " Lord, remember me when 
Thou shalt come into Thy kingdom." 

Cardinal Bellarmine, commenting on this pathetic pas- 
sage of the Gospel, observes that the good thief calls 
Jesus Christ Lord, and confessed Him to be true God 
and Redeemer, meanwhile confessing his own great un- 
worthiness. Then the same writer passes on to examine 
the words, a Remember me," and he finds them full of 
faith, hope, love, devotion, and humility. The Cardinal 
observes that Dismas did not say, " if Thou canst," because 
he firmly believed that the Crucified whom he addressed 
was God, who could do as He wished. He did not say, 
" Remember me, if it please Thee," because his hope in 
the Saviour's charity was so strong that he did not doubt 
that his prayer would be heard. He did not say, " I wish 



232 MEDITATIONS ON THE SUFFERINGS OF CHRIST. 

to enter into Thy kingdom," for his humility was too 
great to allow him to make such a request. Finally, he 
did not ask anything in particular, but only asked that he 
might be remembered: "Eem?.mber me," said he; and 
then added, "when Thou shalt come into Thy kingdom," 
— these last words being to show the Saviour that he did 
not desire temporal life nor riches, but only the goods of 
eternity, which he then esteemed more than the life which 
he was about to lose. O worthy prayer ! O prayer fully 
worthy to be imitated by us, and to be heard by God ! 

Let us, therefore, learn from this good thief to pray 
with lively faith, firm hope, and profound humility ; and 
we may be sure that God, who heard and granted the 
prayer of a dying highwayman and murderer, shall infal- 
libly hear our prayers. li Ask, and you shall receive." 

Second Point. 

The mere careful and solicitous was the good thief in 
corresponding to the call of heaven, the more our merci- 
ful Redeemer was desirous of giving his reward. For, 
seeing that the unhappy robber's prayer was full of faith 
and contrition, and wishing to leave us a sublime example 
of His mercy in hearing our petitions at all times, even 
at the point of death, He again raised His voice and, con- 
soling the good thief, said to him in loving accents : 
" Amen I say to thee, this day thou shalt be with Me in 
paradise." These words were tantamount to these others : 
''Thy zeal in defending My innocence so unjustly at- 
tacked, hath pleased Me ; thy humble confession hath 
been dear to Me ; thy prayer, because accompanied by a 
lively faith and profound humility, hath been acceptable 
to Me, — and for all this thy sins are forgiven thee, and I 



JESUS' SECOND WORD SPOKEN ON THE CKOSS. 233 

promise that this very day thou shalt "be with Me in 
paradise. Fear not, therefore ; but in thy sufferings im- 
itate Me, offering them to My Eternal Father, and in a 
few hours thou shalt enter upon an eternity of bliss." 

Cardinal Bellarmine further observes that Jesus Christ 
did not say to the good thief, " I will place you on My 
right hand, among the just, on the Day of Judgment ;" 
He did not say, " I will admit you into My kingdom 
after a few years of purgatory ;" He did not say, " I will 
console you after a few months or days," — but He said, 
" This very day, before the setting of the sun, thou shalt 
ascend from the sufferings of the gibbet into the delights 
of heaven." 

Admirable goodness of Jesus ! Incomparably happy 
fate of the repentant sinner ! Our Lord, being at that 
moment immersed in a sea of suffering and anguish, com- 
passed by the sorrows of death, could have refused to 
hear the prayer of the good thief ; but He preferred 
rather to forget the intensity of His sufferings than the 
immensity of His mercy. Jesus, who remained deaf, as it 
were, to the horrible blasphemies of His cruel execution- 
ers, and the insults of the priests, hearkens to the voice 
of the penitent thief. A simple prayer was sufficient to 
induce Him to hear, accept, and reward the repentant 
sinner. 

" The good Jesus," says St. Bernard, " does not allow 
Himself to be outdone in generosity ; as soon as He hears, 
He promises and rewards. Who could despair, having 
such a Master?" St. Ambrose observes that the grant 
was greater than the request, our Lord always being ac- 
customed to bestow more than is asked of Him. The 
thief asked only to be remembered, but Jesus promised 
that he should soon be in paradise. The same holy Doc- 



234 MEDITATIONS ON THE SUFFERINGS OF CHRIST. 

tor also says that the Saviour, before consoling His 
Blessed Mother, addresses and consoles the thief, because 
He wished to show that He ever attached a prior import- 
ance to the chief end for which He had come into the 
world, the salvation of sinners. 

Many are the lessons which the sacred expositors deduce 
from this second word of Jesus on the cross. Among 
them, these two are most profitable : first, that even great 
sinners should still have confidence in the Saviour's 
mercy ; secondly, that even the just should work out 
their salvation in fear and trembling. 

Sinners should have great confidence in God when they 
behold a murderer who had lead a life of dissipation and 
crime, till overtaken by justice and condemned to capital 
punishment, at last becoming a convert and saint. The 
just, on the other hand, should learn a lesson of holy fear, 
when they see that, in the very hour in which human re- 
demption was being accomplished, of the two companions 
of our Lord, one was saved and the other was damned. 
" One," St. Jerome says, " went to heaven ;" and the 
other followed Judas. St. Augustine says that the cross 
seemed like a tribunal, the judge in the midst, the guilty, 
one on the right, and the other on the left : the one who 
repented was saved, and the one who remained obdurate 
was damned. " This," adds the holy Doctor, " was an 
expressive image of what was to take place on the Day of 
Judgment, when many will be placed on the right and 
many on the left." 

There may here be added another reflection suggested 
by a tradition still existing in Palestine. The people of 
that country point out, even at the present day, a castle 
known as the " Castle of the Good Thief." It is situated 
between Ramie and Jerusalem ; and here, as the tradition 



JESUS' SECOND WORD SPOKEN ON THE CROSS. 235 

goes, Dismas used to lie in wait for travellers going to 
and from Jerusalem. On one occasion the Blessed Vir- 
gin happened to pass that way, and the robber not only 
respected her but also gave her an escort to defend and 
protect her on her journey. This act of courtesy on the 
part of a highwayman was most pleasing to the Blessed 
Virgin and her Divine Son. The robber's reward was 
heaven. Let us, therefore, ever be devout to this Holy 
Virgin to whom the Church gives the glorious title of 
" Kefuge of Sinners." Her protection shall surely not 
fail us, since it did not fail a robber and murderer. 



236 MEDITATIONS ON THE SUFFERINGS OF CHRIST. 



CONSIDERATION XLIII. 

The Third and Fourth Words spoken by Jesus on 
the Cross. 

" When Jesus, therefore, had seen His mother and the disciple 
standing, whom He loved, He saith to His mother : Woman, be- 
hold thy son. After that, He saith to the disciple: Behold thy 
mother."— #£. John xix. 26, 27. 



First Point. 

"1 TAVING prayed for His executioners and promised 
J — ■- the good thief the kingdom of heaven, Jesus saw- 
that only a few hours remained to Him ; and wishing to 
follow the ordinary custom of the dying, He disposed 
Himself to make His last will from the hard wood of the 
cross. Like a tender father who, stretched upon his 
death-bed, gathers his children around him to express his 
last wishes to them, our most amiable Jesus, looking down 
from the cross upon His afflicted Mother standing with 
St. John, addressed His third word to those two privi- 
leged creatures, — a word always full of tenderest conso- 
lation for us. 

Turning His dying eyes upon Mary and St. John, the 
beloved disciple, Jesus said, " Woman, behold thy son ;" 
then turning towards St. John, He added, " Behold thy 
mother." It was as if He had said : " The hour hath at 
length arrived when I must return to My Eternal Father. 
Seeing that thou, O Mary, hast no longer father nor 



THIRD AND FOURTH WORDS ON THE CROSS. 237 

mother, brothers nor sisters, to support thee in thy sor- 
row and comfort thee in this vale of tears, I will not 
leave thee alone and destitute of every consolation, but I 
commend thee to John, My beloved disciple, who shall 
be to thee as a son ; and him I warmly commend to thee, 
that thou mayest be unto him a mother." 

The Gospel says that " from that hour the disciple 
took her to his own." The holy Fathers add that neither 
Mary nor John was able to make any answer, both signi- 
fying their assent to the disposition made by the Saviour 
by a simple inclination of the head. 

Now, if we wish to derive spiritual profit from the 
consideration of this third word of Jesus on the cross, let 
us imagine that we, too, are standing near Him on Mount 
Calvary, and that, in dying accents, He thus addresses us: 

"Behold, My dear children, in a few moments I shall 
be no more. You are those whom I have made My heirs : 
hear, therefore, My last will in your regard. I do not, 
indeed, bequeath you immense treasures, vast possessions, 
rich household goods, because, My kingdom not being of 
this world, I have never possessed such things. You 
well know that I was born in a stable between two ani- 
mals, without covering or shelter ; and that I have lived 
on the bread of charity, and passed long days in fasting, 
because I had nothing to eat. Yet I will not pass from 
this world without leaving you a token of My love. 
While with you, I have always done you good, giving 
sight to the blind, hearing to the deaf, speech to the 
dumb, the use of their limbs to the lame, health to the 
sick, life to the dead, liberty from Satan to the possessed, 
and miraculous food to the hungry. And on the very 
night that I was betrayed into the hands of My bitter 
enemies, My desire to remain forever with you was so 



238 MEDITATIONS ON THE SUFFERINGS OF CHRIST. 

great that I instituted, by the miracle of miracles, the 
Most August Sacrament of the Holy Eucharist. 

" Soon after this admirable institution, I was made pris- 
oner, loaded with chains, led before tribunals, where in- 
sults and injuries were heaped upon Me. I was scourged, 
crowned with thorns, and brought to this mount as a 
malefactor. Here I was given gall, stripped of My gar- 
ments, and nailed to this cross between two thieves. And 
now tortured, full of anguish, covered with wounds, and 
on the point of rendering up My soul to My Eternal 
Father, I think it proper to make My last will. But I 
have nothing to bequeath you, not even My garments ; 
still I wish to leave you a token of My love : so, dear 
children, I give you the most precious object that I have 
on earth, — My amiable Mother ; and I leave her to you 
that you may know how deep is My love for you. Be 
watchful and tender to My dear Mother, and in your 
necessities of soul and body have recourse to her with 
confidence, and she will certainly help you. In time of 
danger and distress, affliction and infirmity, temptation 
and despondency, she will come to your assistance, for 
she is the treasurer of My graces, the dispenser of My 
favors, the gate of heaven, the refuge of sinners, the 
counsellor of the aiflicted. Go, therefore, always to My 
Mother with firm confidence and hope, and you shall 
ever find in her the tenderest of mothers. But thou, O 
John, console her in her grief ; bear her company, and 
try henceforth to assuage the sorrows of her life. And 
thou, O Mary, accept for thy children all the children of 
the human race ; and when they have recourse to thee, 
look not upon them as sinners, but with a mother's eye 
of tenderest pity. For them I have lived a life of priva- 
tion and suffering ; for them I now shed My blood, and 



THIRD AND FOURTH WORDS ON THE CROSS. 239 

for them in a few moments I will deliver up My life on 
the cross. See to it, dear Mother, that all My sufferings 
and anguish shall not remain without fruits, and by thy 
powerful intercession procure the salvation of all men/' 
O admirable and adorable will ! O loving words of 
my Saviour! And is it, then, true that I am a child of 
Mary \ Therefore, with all confidence will I ever have 
recourse to her. Ah, my most amiable Saviour, what a 
treasure hast Thou bequeathed me ! And thou, O Mary, 
my dearest Mother ! since thou didst not refuse to accept 
me for thy son, obtain for me the graces necessary to 
make me worthy to call thee by the sweet name of 
Mother. 

Second Point. 

Imagining ourselves still on Calvary, let us contem- 
plate our beloved Eedeemer, who, having bequeathed us 
His most afflicted Mother, turns to His Eternal Father 
and utters His fourth word from the cross. 

But first let us consider the state of anguish in which 
our Lord was when He thus turned to heaven for help. 
If He rested His body on His feet, the punctures of the 
nails became wider and wider; if He sustained His 
weight by His outstretched arms, the wounds in His 
hands were widened ; if He leaned His head against the 
cross, the thorns penetrated more deeply ; if He looked 
down, it was only to experience renewed anguish at the 
sight of His grief-stricken Mother. His veins were be- 
ing emptied of their blood; His body was reduced to 
the utmost; His breathing began to fail; He no longer 
received from the Eternal Father those celestial consola- 
tions which had hitherto supported Him in the course of 
His bitter passion ; all His disciples, except the beloved 



240 MEDITATIONS ON THE SUFFERINGS OF CHRIST. 

St. John, had abandoned Him ; and the Jews at the foot 
of the cross were wagging their heads and calling Him 
a seducer and a blasphemer of the name of God. 

Abandoned thus in His agony, Jesus fulfilled the 
words spoken of Him by Ecclesiasticus, "They com- 
passed Me on every side, and there was no one that would 
help Me. I looked for the succor of men, and there was 
none." Finding no succor from creatures, Jesus turns 
His eyes towards heaven, and from the bottom of His 
afflicted heart exclaims, u Eli, Eli, lamina sabacthani ?" 
that is, " My God, my God, why hast Thou forsaken 
Me ?" Few words, indeed ; but oh, how much they con- 
tain ! It was as if Jesus had said : "lam Thy only be- 
gotten Son ; I am Thy beloved from all eternity ; I have 
been obedient to Thee even unto death, — and desertest 
Thou Me in the midst of this ocean of suffering ? Alas ! 
have pity on Me, O most clement Father, and save Me. 
The waters of tribulation have penetrated in unto My 
soul ; I have fallen into a bottomless abyss of woe ; I am 
as one cast out upon the waters of the deep, and the 
tempest has overwhelmed Me ; I have become a stranger 
to My brethren, and unknown unto the children of My 
Mother, and now dost Thou, too, O my Father, abandon 
Me?" 

H*ow deeply painful this sense of abandonment must 
have been, we may conjecture from the fact that the Sa- 
viour's utterance was accompanied by a tone of com- 
plaint — the first in the course of the passion. "When 
falsely accused, when cruelly scourged, when condemned, 
when nailed to the cross, Jesus was patient and resigned ; 
not a groan had escaped from His lips ; it seemed that 
He had lost all sensibility. But when He saw Himself 
abandoned by all, and even by His Eternal Father, then 



THIRD AND FOURTH WORDS ON THE CROSS. 241 

from out the bitterness of His afflicted soul escaped the 
cry, " My God, my God, why hast Thou forsaken Me ?" 

The intensity of this grief can only be imagined by 
those privileged souls who were once nourished with 
spiritual favors and are afterwards, as a trial to their vir- 
tue,, abandoned to spiritual dryness. While such souls 
enjoy heavenly consolations, they are firm under every 
kind of suffering, — persecutions, sickness, poverty, loss 
of friends ; they could give up even their very lives for 
the sake of their sweet Jesus. But the moment that 
God withdraws those spiritual comforts, they at once be- 
come sad, gloomy, and discouraged, and complain of be- 
being forsaken by their Divine Master. Such persons 
should think of Jesus abandoned on the cross, and find- 
ing this abandonment the most cruel of His many suffer- 
ings. Meanwhile, His enemies, far from being touched 
by His cry to the Eternal Father, took occasion to deride 
the more, saying, " This Man calleth Elias : let be, let us 
see whether Elias will come to deliver Him." 

We should not imitate the example of the perfidious 
Jews, but we should reflect with Blessed Simon of Cas- 
sia that Jesus was abandoned by His Eternal Father, that 
we might not be abandoned to the power of our enemies, 
and that His abandonment might prove the source of 
our salvation. Let us, therefore, pray with St. Bernard : 
" At my last hour, O Lord, let me not be abandoned into 
the hands of my enemies ; but do Thou help me, that I 
may render up my soul into Thy most loving arms." 
16 



242 MEDITATIONS ON THE SUFFERINGS OF CHRIST. 



CONSIDEKATIOK XLIV. 
The Last Word spoken by Jesus on the Cross. 

" Afterwards Jesus knowing that all things were now accom- 
plished, that the Scripture might be fulfilled, said: I thirst." — St. 
John xix. 28. 

First Point. 

THE quantity of blood which had flowed from our 
Divine Lord during the scourging, the crowning 
with thorns, and the crucifixion was so great that it caused 
Him a burning thirst. In order to obtain something to 
allay it, and also to show us that there was no kind of 
torment possible to one in His situation which He did 
not endure, He exclaimed, " I thirst." Cardinal Bellar- 
mine thus paraphrases those words : " All the humors of 
My body are dried up; My throat, My palate, and My 
very bowels are parched. If there are any on this mount 
who have any sentiment of compassion for Me, let them 
procure Me, in charity, a drop of water to cool My burn- 
ing thirst." This is the literal sense of the words, " I 
thirst ;" but our Lord had another thirst, and one far 
more ardent than that which consumed His body. It was 
that thirst which He made known to the Samaritan 
woman at Sichem, — an undying thirst for the salvation 
of souls. Hence a devout author, in the fervor of his 
meditation, exclaims : " For what, Lord, dost Thou thirst? 
Doth Thy thirst then torment Thee more than Thy cross ? 
Thou art silent concerning the torment of Thy cross, but 



LAST WORD SPOKEN BY JESUS ON THE CROSS. 243 

Thon speakest of the torment of Thy thirst." St. Au- 
gustine answers, in the person of Christ, " My thirst is for 
your eternal salvation ; the thirst which I have for your 
soul is greater than the thirst which consumes My body." 
St. Laurence Justinian says that the thirst of Jesus was 
for still greater suffering, as if He would have said : " If 
you think that I have not already suffered sufficiently, 
add to My sufferings ; add scourging to scourging, wounds 
to wounds, tortures to tortures : I accept them all, I 
desire them, I thirst for them, and for even greater suffer- 
ings still." 

The Jews heard the Saviour's request, but instead of 
feeling compassion for Him, they were prompted to a 
new act of barbarity. A vase filled with vinegar stood 
by into which one of them dipped a sponge, and placing 
it on the end of a spear, offered it to Jesus. " Kow there 
was a vessel set there full of vinegar. And they putting 
a sponge full of vinegar about hyssop, put it to His 
mouth" (St. John xix. 29). The Seraphic Doctor, St. 
Bonaventure, commenting on these words, says : " The 
Jews not knowing of any other external torture which 
they could inflict on Jesus, invented this new barbarity 
to afflict Him internally." St. Laurence Justinian says 
that it was a thing unheard of even in the most barbarous 
countries, to give vinegar as a drink to a dying man. 
This cruelty was an excess of inhumanity without paral- 
lel. What is not denied to the lowest animals when 
dying is refused to the expiring Son of God. St. Bona- 
venture finds a reason for this act of cruelty: Jesus had 
suffered through the sense of hearing by the blasphemies 
poured out against Him; in His eyes, by His tears; in 
His sense of touch, by the wounds He had received; 
there yet remained one sense through which He should 



244 MEDITATIONS ON THE SUFFERINGS OF CHRIST. 

suffer, — the sense of taste, in order to atone for the sin 
of Adam and Eve in eating the forbidden fruit, and for 
all the sins of gluttony of the human race. 

Jesus did not refuse to allow the draught to be pressed 
to His lips ; but no sooner had He tasted it than He spoke 
for the sixth time, saying, " It is consummated." Bellar- 
mine paraphrases these words as follows : " The great 
sacrifice is consummated, of which the sacrifices of the 
Old Law were only shadows and figures. The will of 
My Eternal Father is now accomplished." " All is con- 
summated," says Blessed Simon, "all the days of His 
life on this ungrateful earth are over. The war against 
sin and hell is finished ; the Redemption of mankind is 
accomplished. Jesus has fully paid the debts of divine 
justice ; He has drunk to the last drop the bitter draught 
in His chalice of suffering ; the prophecies have been ful- 
filled ; the figures of the Old Testament have disappeared, 
and only the death of the testator is needed that His testa- 
ment may be executed. But if everything is finished, 
why does not sin cease on the earth." Behold, what 
should be the fruit of this consideration ! 



Second Point. 

Now that all things had been accomplished, Jesus 
turned His dyiug eyes once more towards heaven and 
exclaimed, " Father, into Thy hands I commend My 
spirit." That is to say, " Father, My most amiable Father, 
I commend My soul to Thy paternal love ; sustain Me in 
this terrible passage ; accept the victim which Thy Son 
offereth Thee in atonement for the sins of the world. 
This soul of Mine, O My Father, oppressed by so many 
sufferings, overwhelmed by so much anguish, I return 



LAST WORD SPOKEN BY JESUS ON THE CROSS. 245 

into the hands of Thy infinite mercy. Let Me then ex- 
pire in Thy most loving arms." 

These were Jesus' last words, and when He had spoken 
them, He expired. " And bowing His head, He gave up 
the ghost." 

The earth at once began to tremble, the sun was dark- 
ened, the rocks burst asunder, the veil of the temple was 
rent in two from the top even to the bottom, the graves 
opened and many of the dead appeared to people in Jeru- 
salem. But while these wonders were taking place in the 
realm of nature, even greater were being accomplished in 
the realm of grace. Infidels believed ; obstinate sinners 
nepented ; the Gentiles and many of the multitude who had 
cried out, " Let Him be crucified," and who only a few 
mtenents before had insulted Him as He hung upon the 
cross, struck their breasts, saying, "This Man was truly 
the Son of God." 

St. Jerome, writing from the cave of Bethlehem, ex- 
claims: "Ah! sinners, what do I see? All insensible 
creatures give, in their own way, signs of sorrow for the 
death of the Creator. The sun is darkened, the earth 
quakes, the rocks are burst asunder, the veil of the temple 
is rent in twain, the sepulchi es yield up their dead, and 
man only, for whom Jesus died, refuses to grieve." 

St. Ephraim cries out, " All creatures are seized with 
great terror, and shall we sinners remain unmoved ?" St. 
Thomas says that the rocks were rent to signify that the 
hearts of men, even the hardest, shall one day be rent at 
the remembrance of the sufferings of Jesus. St. Bernard, 
filled with the greatest sorrow, turns to our Saviour, and 
thus addresses Him : " O my good Jesus, what do I see ? 
We should have died, and Thou diest instead ! We sinned 
and Thou it is that offerest the atonement. O work with- 



246 MEDITATIONS ON THE SUFFERINGS OF CHRIST. 

out example ! O grace without limit ! O charity without 
measure ! " — " O sinners," concludes St. Ephraim, " trem- 
ble as you consider these things. Jesus Christ died, and 
died on the cross for us. Great God, Thou didst then 
die a victim of Thy immense love for us ! What shall 
we do now that we are deprived of so amiable a Father ? 
To whom shall we have recourse in our troubles, in our 
necessities? Who shall now defend us in our dangers, 
temptations ? Who shall come to the aid of our weak- 
ness? Who shall calm our perplexities, our anxieties, if 
Thou wilt leave us ? Alas ! we have deserved to be aban- 
doned by Thee. We persecuted Thee even unto death ; 
our bad thoughts crowned Thee with thorns, our disor- 
derly passions embittered Thy mind ; yes, we are the ones 
who crucified Thee by the multitude of our sins. Leave, 
then, this ungrateful earth which gave Thee in return for 
all Thy love only scourges, thorns, and finally the cross. 
But, oh ! when Thou shalt have entered Thy kingdom, 
do not forget us. Remember that Thy first prayer from 
the altar of the cross was for Thy executioners : as then 
Thou didst pray for us miserable sinners, so grant us life 
everlasting through the infinite merits of Thy most bitter 
passion and death. 



JESUS IS LAID IN THE SEPULCHRE. 247 



CONSIDEKATIO^ XLY. 

Jesus is taken down from the Cross and laid in 
the Sepulchre. 

" Now there stood by the cross of Jesus, His mother, and His 
mother's sister, Mary of Cleophas, and Mary Magdalene." — 8t. 
John xix. 25. 

First Point. 

THE most horrible crime capable of being conceived 
even by the powers of a supernatural being had now 
been fully consummated, and the only begotten Son of 
God hung lifeless on the cross. Then only did those 
barbarous men who had impassively witnessed the divine 
tragedy begin to descend Golgotha, and soon the heights 
of that sacred mountain were almost deserted. Mary, 
however, remained immovable at the foot of the cross, 
her eyes tenderly fixed upon the Crucified ; and with her 
were John, the beloved disciple, and Mary Magdalene and 
Mary of Cleophas, these two women having witnessed the 
crucixion from afar, and ascended the mountain when 
the crowds had deserted it. Soon came certain soldiers 
who had been sent by Pontius Pilate at the request of 
the Jews to break the legs of the crucified, and to take 
their bodies down from the cross, in order that they 
might not remain exposed on the great Jewish feast of 



248 MEDITATIONS ON THE SUFFERINGS OF CHRIST. 

the parasceve. These soldiers accordingly approached and 
fuMlled their office by breaking the legs of the two 
thieves who were still in agony. Finding Jesus already 
dead, they did not break His legs ; but a soldier, wishing to 
vent his ferocity even against the Saviour's corpse, struck 
His sacred side with a lance, and immediately from this 
new wound flowed forth blood and water. Their work 
done, the soldiers went their way, leaving to others the 
care of removing and burying the bodies of the executed. 

Then Joseph of Arimathea and JSTicodemus, two secret 
disciples of Jesus, arrived on the sacred scene. Having 
courageously presented themselves before Pontius Pilate, 
and obtained permission to take possession of the dead 
body of their Master, they had now come to pay those 
sacred remains the last sad offices of religion, carrying with 
them a mixture of myrrh and aloes — " about an hundred 
pound weight," says St. John — in order to embalm the 
venerable body; they also brought with them linen 
cloths in which to envelop it, according to the custom of 
the Jews in burying the dead. 

The first act of these disciples was to offer consolation 
to the afflicted Virgin Mother. They then proceeded to 
the deposition of the sacred body of their Divine Master. 
Placing two small ladders against the cross, they ascend- 
ed, and, taking a folded sheet, passed it under the arms 
and then secured it to the cross so that the weight of the 
body might be supported on its descent. They first re- 
leased the hands, which fell cold and limp by the Saviour's 
side. As each nail was extracted it was handed to St. 
John, and he in turn gave it to Mary, who fervently 
kissed it and carefully kept it. The hands being de- 
tached, they unnailed the feet and let the body slowly, 



JESUS IS LAID IN" THE SEPULCHRE. 249 

slowly glide down the sheet, thus accomplishing the 
descent from the cross. 

The disciples tenderly laid the sacred remains in the 
arms of the trembling, grief -stricken Mother. "What a 
difference from the first time that she had received and 
held Him on her knee as a child ! Then He was all 
beauty, and now His wounded and blood-stained body in- 
spires horror. Unhappy Mother, wast thou not satisfied 
with having witnessed His scourging, with having gone 
to meet Him on the Dolorous Way, with having accom- 
panied Him to Mount Calvary, and with having witnessed 
His painful crucifixion and death ? Dost thou now wish 
to receive His dead body into thy loving arms ? O truly 
great soul of Mary, worthy only of the Mother of God ! 
Behold, O Mary, all thy desires are satisfied ! Thou dost 
again possess thy treasure, and thou canst freely give 
vent to thy maternal love. But, alas ! she can no longer 
feel the throbbings of His heart. She no longer sees His 
eyes beaming love upon her. She contemplates that lov- 
ing countenance which was once the delight of heaven 
and earth, but which is now all wounded and disfigured. 
Those divine lips which were wont to pronounce words 
of eternal life, are now silent and motionless. That ador- 
able head which had, in His infancy, so often reposed upon 
her breast, is now transfixed by sharpest thorns. Those 
omnipotent hands which had built heaven and earth, 
and performed stupendous miracles, are now torn by cruel 
nails. Those feet which ever hastened to aid suffering 
humanity are horribly disfigured by the punctures of the 
nails. The sacred side, the seat of His most loving heart, 
from which have sprung so many tender affections, is 
now open from the wound of a lance, and blood and 



250 MEDITATIONS ON THE SUFFERINGS OF CHRIST. 

water still trickle from it. Those sacred limbs which, in 
infancy, she had so often caressed, are all covered with 
wounds. His soul no longer gives light to the sacred 
humanity which was its companion in suffering, and now, 
worn out by torments and tortures, the sacred body de- 
mands the repose and silence of the tomb. 

But, O most Holy Virgin, before thy Son is taken from 
thy view, accomplish for Him those last sad offices of 
charity which thy maternal grief so eagerly suggests. 
Remove the crown of thorns from His sacred head, — 
that crown which caused Him so much pain ; wipe from 
His form the blood which flowed so copiously from His 
wounds ; remove from His face the revolting spittle, by 
which He was so much dishonored ; anoint Him with 
odoriferous balm and spices in order to preserve His 
body from corruption ; wrap Him in a clean linen gar- 
ment ; then, with John the beloved disciple, with Mary 
Magdalene, pious Mcodemus, and faithful Joseph of 
Arimathea, go and deposit those sacred mortal remains in 
the adjacent sepulchre which Joseph freely gives to his 
Divine Master. 

Second Point. 

At last Jesus is laid in the sepulchre, and the great 
stone rolled over against it. The sun has gone down, and 
the soldiers have arrived, who were sent by Pilate, at the 
request of the Jews, to guard the tomb, lest the disciples 
steal away the Saviour's body and spread the news of His 
resurrection. Thou, O Mary, canst no longer stay in this 
place; for the night is fast advancing, and the guards 
who have taken up their position on the mount will force 
thee to retire. Deposit, therefore, thy immaculate heart 



JESUS IS LAID IN THE SEPULCHRE. 251 

in the tomb with thy Beloved. As a dove to its cote, 
return, O Mary, to thy desolate home, there to deplore 
thy irreparable loss. The blood which Jesus shed on the 
way to Calvary will serve to guide thee back to Jerusalem ; 
the faithful disciples who helped thee to take Jesus 
down from the cross and to bury Him will, in mournful 
and reverend silence, accompany thee ; the other Marys 
will sustain thee ; the beloved disciple will follow thee, 
weeping bitter tears. But before quitting this sacred 
tomb, which in all future time shall be visited and rever- 
enced by multitudes of people from all nations of the 
earth, turn once more and look upon the mount where 
the divine tragedy was enacted. Contemplate the hard 
tree of the cross, on which thy Son offered up the grand 
and truly sublime holocaust ; lift up that crown and those 
nails, the instruments of His painful passion ; take up 
with a sponge as much as possible of the blood of Jesus 
which reddens the heights of Calvary, and then, O most 
afflicted of mothers, retrace thy steps over the road so 
recently trodden by thy beloved Son bearing the terrible 
weight of the cross. On thy return home thou shalt see 
the apostles who deserted their Master in His last hours, 
and who, now confused and repentant, shall come to pros- 
trate themselves at thy feet to obtain thy gracious pardon. 
Thou shalt meet the penitent Peter, humbled, shedding 
torrents of tears, and speechless from the intensity of the 
grief which oppresses him. Finally, thou shalt see all 
sinners, who, conscious of having become thy adopted 
children by the last will of Jesus, shall take refuge under 
thy protection, and implore thy maternal clemency. 
Amongst those sinners, O Mary, thou shalt see me, — un- 
grateful and criminal as I am — coming with contrite and 






252 MEDITATIONS ON THE SUFFERINGS OF CHRIST. 

humble heart to crave thy clemency and to pray thee as 
I pray thee now : 

O most sorrowful Mother, what confusion overwhelms 
me as I contemplate thee standing at the foot of the 
cross! Who can understand the excessive grief which 
filled thy heart when thou receivedst into thy arms the 
beloved form of thy dead Son ? Ko ; not even a 
mother's heart save thy own is able to conceive it. But 
what except our sins was the cause of thy great sorrow ? 
Recognizing that I am guilty of many crimes, I confess 
that I helped to pierce thy tender heart with a sharp 
sword of grief. By my frequent relapses into sin I 
aided in torturing the sacred humanity of Jesus. By 
showing myself merciless to others, I caused His pre- 
cious blood to flow. My obscene words were the thorns 
in that horrible crown ; my acts of dishonesty nailed 
Him to the cross ; my gluttony, immodest looks, and 
disorderly conduct covered His face with disgusting 
spittle and pierced His sacred side. But remember, O my 
merciful Mother, that all His wounds are so many mouths 
which plead for my pardon. Remember His last words 
to thee, "Woman, behold thy son." Chosen to be the 
Mother of all sinners, thou didst accept me as thy son. 
Thou who didst always imitate the virtues of Jesus, for- 
get not the last instance of His love for man. He was 
in His agony, nailed to His cross between two thieves, 
immersed in a sea of suffering, and about to render up 
His soul to God. Seeing that His enemies ceased not to 
insult, mock, and torture Him, He prayed His Eternal 
Father to forgive them. Imitate Him, O Mary, in this 
heroic act of charity, as thou didst imitate His other sub- 
lime virtues. Spread over me thy protecting mantle. 






JESUS IS LAID IN THE SEPULCHRE. 253 

Hide the multitude of my sins from the sight of thy 
Divine Son. Obtain for me the grace to live and die in 
the meditation of His most holy passion ; for if I keep 
constantly before my mind all that Jesus suffered for me, 
I shall be enabled to avoid evermore offending Him, and 
I shall thus obtain the salvation of my soul, — for which 
I most sincerely hope, through thy holy intercession and 
the infinite merits of my Kedeemer. 



MEDITATIONS 

FOR 

Every Day in the Year, 

COLLECTED FROM DIFFERENT SPIRITUAL WRITERS 
And Suited for the Practice Called 

"tyuuxUx 0t uu Umax's galitufa." 

Edited by 
REV. ROGER BAXTER, S. J., 

OF GEORGETOWN COLLEGE. 

This book was first written in Latin, in 1639, by N. B. (an English 
religious), and handed around in manuscript for years, during the times 
of persecution in England, where it was used by many holy persons. It 
was translated into English in 1669 by Rev. E. Mico, and revised and 
modernized in 1822 by Rev. Roger Baxter, S. J., of Georgetown College. 
It is now republished and revised in the 251st year of Jesuit labor in 
the United States by Rev. P. NEALE, S. J., of St. Inigo's, Md. 



'■' Recte novit vivere qui reete novis or are." "He knows how to live well who 
inows how to pray well." — St. Augustine. 

"Every day will I aless Thee: and I will praise Thy name forever, yea, for 
•ver and ever,"— -Vs. «uv ; 3. 



With a Letter of Approbation from 
His Grace, Most Rev. JAMES GIBBONS, Archbishop of Baltimore. 



121110, Clotli, 513 Pages, - ■ $2.00. 



BENZIGER BROTHERS, NEW YORK, CINCINNATI, AND ST. LOUIS. 



A Creat Suc cess! Over 5 0,000 sold ! 

The Right Rev. Bishop of Erie writes : " These books must and should 
Veceive the name of 

" The CatholicFamily Library." 

The Christian Father; 

What he should be, and what he should do. With Prayers suit* 
able to his condition. From the German by Rev. L. A. Lambert, 
Waterloo, N. Y. With an Introduction, by Rt. Rev. S. V. Ryan, 
D.D., CM., Bishop of Buffalo. 

Paper, 25 cents I Cloth, Socenta 

Maroquette 35 " French Mor., flex., red edges, $i.o« 

The Christian Mother; 

The Education of her Children and her Prayer. Translated by a 
Father of the Society of Jesus. With an Introduction by the 
Most Rev. James Gibbons, D.D., Archbishop of Baltimore. 

Paper, 25 cents I Cloth, 50 cents 

Maroquette, 35 " French Mor., flex., red edges, $1.00 

A Sure Way to a Happy Marriage. 

A Book of Instructions for those Betrothed and for Married 
People. Translated by Rev. Edward I. Taylor. 

Paper, 30 cents | Maroquette, 40 cents 

Cloth, 60 cents. 



In token of my appreciation, I request you to forward me A thousand 
(1000) copies of each of the two former books, and five hundred (500) 
of the third for distribution among my people. 
Yours faithfully in Christ, 

»J« James Vincent Cleary, Bishop of Kingston. 

From the Pastoral Letters of Rt. Rev. M. J. O'FARRELL, D.D., 

Bishop of Trenton. 

" For Parents we recommend 'The Christian Father' and 'The 

Christian Mother,' in which they will fully learn all their duties to their 

children."— Pastoral, 1883, 

" We strongly recommend for your perusal and serious considera- 
tion two little books lately published ; one is entitled 'A Sure Way to A 
Happy Marriage,' and the other ' An Instruction on Mixed Marriages/' 
by the Rt. Rev. Dr. Ullathorne. — Pastoral, 1882. 

Warmly recommended and approved by Five (5) Archbishops and 
Twenty-one (21) Bishops, as follows : 

The Most Rev. Archbishops of 

BALTIMORE, CINCINNATI, OREGON, TORONTO, Can., TUAM, Ireland. 

The Right Rev. Bishops of 

alton, grass valley, london, can., newark, st. paul, 

buffalo kingston, can., marquette, ogdensburg, savannah. 

Covington, la crosse, natchez, st. cloud, trenton, 

erie little rock, nesqually, st. john,n.b. vincennes, 

wilmington. 

A Most Liberal Discount to those tvho order in Quantities 



BENZIGER BROTHERS, NEW YORK, CINCINNATI, AND ST. LOUIS. 



\bTVbO 



Deacidified using the Bookkeeper process. 
Neutralizing agent: Magnesium Oxide 
Treatment Date: July 2005 

PreservationTechnologic 

A WORLD LEADER IN PAPER PRESERVATM 
1 1 1 Thomson Park Drive 
Cranberry Township. PA 16066 
(724)779-2111 



LIBRARY OF CONGRESS 




014 227 814 5 



■ 





M 



